WILD  TURKEY 


AND 


TS  HUNTING 


EDWARD  A.MSILHENNY 


THE  GIFT  OF 

FLORENCE  V.  V.  DICKEY 

TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


THE  DONALD  R.  DICKEY 

LIBRARY 
OF  VERTEBRATE  ZOOLOGY 


THE  WILD  TURKEY  AND  ITS  HUNTING 


The  grandest  bird  of  the  American  continent 


THE  WILD  TURKEY 
AND  ITS  HUNTING 


BY 

EDWARD  A.  McILHENNY 


Illustrated  from  Photographs 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOTJBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 
1914 


Copyright,  1912, 1913, 1914,  by 
THE  OUTDOOR  WORLD  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

Copyright,  1914,  by 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian 


/r 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction ix 

CHAPTER 

I.     My  Early  Training  with  the  Turkeys  3 

H.     Range,  Variation,  and  Name    ...  12 

III.  The  Turkey  Prehistoric 26 

IV.  The  Turkey  Historic      .      .      :      .      .  39 
V.    Breast  Sponge  —  Shrewdness    .  .  .      .  104 

VI.     Social      Relations  —  Nesting  —  The 

Young  Birds Ill 

VII.     Association  of  Sexes 119 

VIII.     Its  Enemies  and  Food 134 

IX.     Habits  of  Association  and  Roosting    .  152 

X.     Guns  I  Have  Used  on  Turkey  ...  163 
XI.     Learning  Turkey  Language :  Why  Does 

the  Gobbler  Gobble 170 

XII.     On  Callers  and  Calling 181 

XIII.  Calling  Up  the  Lovelorn  Gobbler  .      .  198 

XIV.  The  Indifferent  Young  Gobbler     .      .  213 
XV.     Hunting  Turkey  with  a  Dog    ...  218 

XVI.     The  Secret  of  Cooking  the  Turkey      .  233 

XVII.    Camera  Hunting  for  Turkeys  ...  238 


535196 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  grandest  bird  of  the  American  continent.  Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Plate  I.    Figs.  1  to 5.    Types:  M .  antiqua; M.  celer. 

Marsh 30 

Plate  II.  Figs.  6  to  10.  Views  of  the  skulls  of 

wild  turkeys 45 

Plate  III.  Fig.  11.  Left  lateral  view  of  the  skull 

of  an  old  male  wild  turkey 60 

Plate  IV.  Figs.  12  to  16.  Views  of  the  cranium 

and  skull  of  the  turkey 75 

Plate  V.  Figs  17  to  19.  Views  of  the  skull  of 

wild  turkeys,  and  skeleton  of  the  left  foot  of  a 

wild  turkey 80 

Plate  VI.  Figs.  20  to  23.  Eggs  of  wild  turkey  .  90 
Plate  VII.  Fig.  24.  Nest  of  a  wild  turkey  in  situ  102 
Note  the  full  chest  of  the  gobbler  on  the  left. 

This  is  the  breast  sponge 106 

Nest  located  in  thick  brush  on  top  of  a  ridge  in 

Louisiana 112 

Hen,  wild  turkey,  and  three  young 116 

The  beginning  of  the  strut 124 

The  chief  of  all  his  enemies  is  the  "  genus  homo  "  .  142 


Vlll  LIST    OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

An  ideal  turkey  country.  They  will  go  a  long  way 
to  roost  in  trees  growing  in  water 156 

A  hermit.  It  would  take  an  expert  turkey  hun- 
ter to  circumvent  this  bird 160 

Big  woods  in  Louisiana  where  the  old  gobblers 
roam  at  will.  A  delightful  place  in  which  to  camp  174 

Jordan's  Turkey  Call  (cut  in  text) 183 

I  soon  saw  the  old  gobbler  stealing  slowly  through 
the  brush 190 

"Cluck,"  "put,"  "put,"  there  stands  a  gobbler, 
within  twenty  paces  to  the  left 202 

Suddenly  there  was  a  "  Gil-obble-obble-obble,"  so 
near  it  made  me  jump  .  .  .  .  ',  .  .  .  206 

The  soft,  gentle  quaver  of  the  hen  has  no  effect  on 
the  ear  of  the  young  gobbler 216 


INTRODUCTION 

A  THOUGH  many  eminent  naturalists  and 
observers  have  written  of  the  turkey 
from  the  date  of  its  introduction  to 
European  civilization  to  the  present  time,  there 
has  been  no  very  satisfactory  history  of  the 
intimate  life  of  this  bird,  nor  has  there  been  a 
satisfactory  analysis  of  either  the  material  from 
which  our  fossil  turkeys  are  known,  or  the  many 
writings  concerning  the  early  history  of  the  bird 
and  its  introduction  to  civilization.  I  have 
attempted  in  this  work  to  cover  the  entire 
history  of  this  very  interesting  and  vanishing 
game  bird,  and  believe  it  will  fill  a  long-felt 
want  of  hunters  and  naturalists  for  a  more  de- 
tailed description  of  its  life  history. 

This  work  was  begun  by  Chas.  L.  Jordan  and 
would  have  been  completed  by  him,  except  for 
his  untimely  death  in  1909. 

Mr.  Jordan  for  more  than  sixty  years  was  a 


X  INTRODUCTION 

careful  observer  and  lover  of  the  wild  turkey, 
and  for  many  years  the  study  of  this  bird  oc- 
cupied almost  his  entire  time.  I  feel  safe  in 
saying  that  Mr.  Jordan  knew  more  of  the  ways 
of  the  wild  turkey  in  the  wilds  than  any  man 
who  ever  lived.  No  more  convincing  example 
of  his  patience  and  perseverance  in  his  study  of 
the  bird  can  be  given  than  the  accompanying 
photographs,  all  of  which  were  taken  of  the  wild 
birds  in  the  big  outdoors  by  Mr.  Jordan. 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Jordan's  death  he  was  in 
his  sixty-seventh  year  and  was  manager  of  the 
Morris  game  preserve  of  over  10,000  acres,  near 
Hammond,  La.  He  had  been  most  successful  in 
attracting  to  this  preserve  a  great  abundance  of 
game,  and  was  very  active  in  suppressing  poach- 
ing and  illegal  hunting.  His  activity  in  this 
cause  brought  about  his  death,  as  he  was  shot 
in  the  back  by  a  poacher  during  the  afternoon  of 
February  24,  1909,  for  which  Allen  Lagrue, 
his  murderer,  is  now  serving  a  life  sentence  in  the 
penitentiary. 

I  had  known  Mr.  Jordan  for  a  number  of 
years  before  his  death  and  was  much  interested 


INTRODUCTION  XI 

in  his  work  with  the  turkey,  as  I,  for  years,  had 
been  carrying  on  similar  studies.  After  Mr. 
Jordan's  death,  through  the  kindness  of  Mr. 
John  K.  Renaud,  I  secured  his  notes,  manuscript, 
and  photographic  plates  of  the  wild  turkey,  and 
with  these,  and  my  knowledge  of  the  bird,  I 
have  attempted  to  compile  a  work  I  think  he 
would  have  approved. 

Mr.  Jordan  from  time  to  time  wrote  articles 
on  the  wild  turkey  for  sporting  magazines, 
among  them  Shooting  and  Fishing,  and  parts 
of  his  articles  are  brought  into  the  present  pub- 
lication. I  have  carried  out  the  story  of  the 
wild  turkey  as  if  told  by  Mr.  Jordan,  as  his  full 
notes  on  the  bird  enable  me  to  do  this. 

I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  R.  W.  Shufeldt  for  his 
chapter  on  the  fossil  turkey,  the  introduction  of 
the  turkey  to  civilization,  and  photographs  ac- 
companying his  two  chapters,  written  at  my 
request  especially  for  this  work.  E.  A.  M. 


THE  WILD  TURKEY  AND  ITS  HUNTING 


CHAPTER  I 

MY    EARLY    TRAINING   WITH    THE   TURKEYS 

MY  FATHER  was  a  great  all-round 
hunter  and  pioneer  in  the  state  of 
Alabama,  once  the  paradise  of  hunters. 
He  was  particularly  devoted  to  deer  hunting  and 
fox  hunting,  owning  many  hounds  and  horses. 
He  knew  the  ways  and  haunts  of  the  forest  people 
and  from  him  my  brothers  and  I  got  our  early 
training  in  woodcraft.  I  was  the  youngest  of  three 
sons,  all  of  whom  were  sportsmen  to  the  manner 
born.  My  brothers  and  myself  were  particu- 
larly fond  of  hunting  the  wild  turkey,  and  were 
raised  and  schooled  in  intimate  association  with 
this  noble  bird;  the  fondness  for  this  sport  has 
remained  with  me  through  life.  I  therefore  may 
be  pardoned  when  I  say  that  I  possess  a  fair 
knowledge  of  their  language,  their  habits,  their 
likes  and  dislikes. 

In  the  great  woods  surrounding  our  home 


4         THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

there  were  numbers  of  wild  turkeys,  and  I  can 
well  remember  my  brother  Frank's  skill  in  calling 
them.  Every  spring  as  the  gobbling  season  ap- 
proached my  brothers  and  myself  would  construct 
various  turkey  calls  and  lose  no  opportunity 
for  practising  calling  the  birds.  I  can  recall, 
too,  when  but  a  mere  lad,  coming  down  from 
my  room  in  the  early  morning  to  the  open 
porch,  and  finding  assembled  the  family  and 
servants,  including  the  little  darkies  and  the 
dogs,  all  in  a  state  of  great  excitement.  I  has- 
tened to  learn  the  cause  of  this  and  was  shown 
with  admiration  a  big  gobbler,  and  as  I  looked 
at  the  noble  bird,  with  its  long  beard  and  glossy 
plumage,  lying  on  the  porch,  I  felt  it  was  a 
beautiful  trophy  of  the  chase. 

"Who  killed  it?"  I  asked.  "Old  Massa,  he 
kill  'im,"  came  from  the  mouths  of  half  a 
dozen  excited  little  darkies.  A  few  days  later 
my  brothers  brought  in  other  turkeys.  This 
made  me  long  for  the  time  when  I  would  be 
old  enough  to  hunt  this  bird,  and  these  happy 
incidents  inspired  me  with  ambition  to  acquire 
proficiency  in  turkey  hunting,  and  to  learn 


MY    EARLY   TRAINING   WITH    THE    TURKEYS     5 

every  method  so  that  I  might  excel  in  that 
sport. 

As  I  grew  older,  but  while  still  a  mere  lad,  I 
would  often  steal  to  the  woods  in  early  morning 
on  my  way  to  school,  and,  hiding  myself  in  some 
thick  bush,  sitting  with  my  book  in  my  lap  and  a 
rude  cane  joint  or  bone  of  a  turkey's  wing  for  a 
call  in  my  hand,  I  would  watch  for  the  turkeys. 
When  they  appeared  I  would  study  every  move- 
ment of  the  birds,  note  their  call,  yelp,  cluck, 
or  gobble,  and  I  gradually  learned  each  sound 
they  made  had  its  meaning.  I  would  study 
closely  the  ways  of  the  hens  and  their  conduct 
toward  the  young  and  growing  broods;  I  would 
also  note  their  attention  to  the  old  or  young  gob- 
blers, and  the  mannerisms  of  the  male  birds 
toward  the  females.  All  this  time  I  would  be 
using  my  call,  attempting  to  imitate  every  note 
that  the  turkeys  made,  and  watching  the  effect. 
These  were  my  rudimentary  and  earliest  lessons 
in  turkey  lore  and  lingo,  and  what  I  have  often 
called  my  schooling  with  the  turkeys. 

At  this  age  I  had  not  begun  the  use  of  a  rifle 
or  shotgun  on  turkeys,  although  I  had  killed 


6          THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

smaller  game,  such  as  squirrels,  rabbits,  ducks, 
and  quail.  I  was  sixteen  years  of  age  when  I 
began  to  hunt  the  wild  turkeys.  I  discovered 
then  that  although  I  was  able  to  do  good  calling 
I  had  much  more  to  learn  to  cope  successfully 
with  the  wily  ways  of  this  bird.  It  took  years  of 
the  closest  observation  and  study  to  acquire  the 
knowledge  which  later  made  me  a  successful 
turkey  hunter,  and  I  have  gained  this  knowledge 
only  after  tramping  over  thousands  of  miles  of 
wild  territory,  through  swamps  and  hummocks, 
over  hills  and  rugged  mountain  sides,  through 
deep  gulches,  quagmires,  and  cane  brakes,  and 
spending  many  hours  in  fallen  treetops,  behind 
logs  or  other  natural  cover,  not  to  be  observed, 
but  to  observe,  by  day  and  by  night,  in  rain, 
wind,  and  storm.  I  have  hunted  the  wild  tur- 
keys on  the  great  prairies  and  thickets  of  Texas, 
along  the  open  river  bottoms  of  the  Brazos, 
Colorado,  Trinity,  San  Jacinto,  Bernardo,  as 
well  as  the  rivers,  creeks,  hills,  and  valleys  of 
Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana. 
With  all  modesty,  I  believe  I  have  killed  as 
many  old  gobblers  with  patriarchal  beards  as 


MY   EARLY    TRAINING   WITH    THE   TURKEYS      7 

any  man  in  the  world.  I  do  not  wish  to  say  this 
boastfully,  but  present  it  as  illustrative  of  the 
experience  I  have  had  with  these  birds,  and 
particularly  with  old  gobblers,  for  I  have  always 
found  a  special  delight  in  outwitting  the  wary  old 
birds. 

I  doubt  not  many  veteran  turkey  hunters 
have  in  mind  some  old  gobbler  who  seemed  in- 
vincible; some  bird  that  had  puzzled  them  for 
three  or  four  years  without  their  learning  the 
tricks  of  the  cunning  fellow.  Perhaps  in  these 
pages  there  may  be  found  some  information 
which  will  enable  even  the  old  hunter  to  better 
circumvent  the  bird.  I  am  aware  that  there 
are  times  when  the  keenest  sportsmen  will  be 
outwitted,  often  when  success  seems  assured. 

How  well  I  know  this.  Many  times  I  have 
called  turkeys  to  within  a  few  feet  of  me;  so  near 
that  I  have  heard  their  "put-put."  And  they 
would  walk  away  without  my  getting  a  shot. 
Often  does  this  occur  to  the  best  turkey  hunter, 
on  account  of  the  game  approaching  from  the 
rear,  or  other  unexpected  point,  and  suddenly 
without  warning  fly  or  run  away.  No  one  can 


8         THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

avoid  this,  but  the  sportsman  who  understands 
turkeys  can  exercise  care  and  judgment  and  kill 
his  bird,  where  others  unacquainted  with  the 
bird  fail.  I  believe  I  can  take  any  man  or  boy 
who  possesses  a  good  eye  and  fair  sense,  and  in 
one  season  make  a  good  turkey  hunter  of  him. 
I  know  of  many  nefarious  tricks  by  which  tur- 
keys could  be  easily  secured,  but  I  shall  not  tell 
of  any  method  of  hunting  and  capturing  turkeys 
but  those  I  consider  sportsmanlike.  Although 
an  ardent  turkey  hunter,  I  have  too  much  respect 
for  this  glorious  bird  to  see  it  killed  in  any  but 
an  honorable  way.  The  turkey's  fate  is  hard 
enough  as  it  is.  The  work  of  destruction  goes 
on  from  year  to  year,  and  the  birds  are  being 
greatly  reduced  in  numbers  in  many  localities. 
The  extinction  of  them  in  some  states  has 
already  been  accomplished,  and  in  others  it  is 
only  a  matter  of  time;  but  there  are  many 
localities  in  the  South  and  West,  especially  in 
the  Gulf-bordering  states,  where  they  are  still 
plentiful,  and  with  any  sort  of  protection  will 
remain  so.  Some  of  these  localities  are  so 
situated  that  they  will  for  generations  remain 


MY    EARLY    TRAINING   WITH    THE    TURKEYS     9 

primeval  forests,  giving  ample  shelter  and  food 
to  the  turkey. 

A  novice  might  think  it  an  easy  matter  to 
find  turkeys  after  seeing  their  tracks  along  the 
banks  of  streams  or  roads,  or  in  the  open  field, 
where  they  lingered  the  day  before.  But  these 
birds  are  not  likely  to  be  in  the  same  place  the 
following  day;  they  will  probably  be  some  miles 
away  on  a  leafy  ridge,  scratching  up  the  dry 
leaves  and  mould  in  quest  of  insects  and  acorns, 
or  in  some  cornfield  gleaning  the  scattered  grain ; 
or  perhaps  they  might  be  lingering  on  the  banks 
of  some  small  stream  in  a  dense  swamp,  gather- 
ing snails  or  small  Crustacea  and  water-loving 
insects. 

To  be  successful  in  turkey  hunting  you  must 
learn  to  rise  early  in  the  morning,  ere  there  is  a 
suspicion  of  daylight.  At  such  a  time  the  air  is 
chilly,  perhaps  it  looks  like  rain,  and  on  awaken- 
ing you  are  likely  to  yawn,  stretch,  and  look  at 
the  time.  Unless  you  possess  the  ardor  of  a 
sportsman  it  is  not  pleasant  to  rise  from  a  com- 
fortable bed  at  this  hour  and  go  forth  into  the 
chill  morning  air  that  threatens  to  freeze  the 


10       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

marrow  in  your  bones.  But  it  is  essential  that 
you  rise  before  light,  and  if  you  are  a  born  tur- 
key hunter  you  will  soon  forget  the  discomforts. 
It  has  been  my  custom,  when  intending  to  go 
turkey  hunting,  never  to  hesitate  a  moment,  but, 
on  awakening  in  the  morning,  bound  out  of  bed 
at  once  and  dress  as  soon  as  possible.  It  has 
also  been  my  custom  to  calculate  the  distance 
I  am  to  go,  so  as  to  reach  the  turkey  range  by  the 
time  or  a  little  before  day  breaks.  I  have  fre- 
quently risen  at  one  or  two  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing and  ridden  twelve  miles  or  more  before  day- 
break for  the  chance  to  kill  an  old  gobbler. 

Early  morning  from  the  break  of  day  until 
nine  o'clock  is  the  very  best  time  during  the 
whole  day  to  get  turkeys;  but  the  half  hour  after 
daybreak  is  really  worth  all  the  rest  of  the  day; 
this  is  the  time  when  everything  chimes  with  the 
new-born  day;  all  life  is  on  the  move;  diurnal 
tribes  awakening  from  night's  repose  are  coming 
into  action,  while  nocturnal  creatures  are  seeking 
their  retreats.  Hence  at  this  hour  there  is  a 
conglomeration  of  animal  life  and  a  babel  of 
mingled  sounds  not  heard  at  any  other  time  of 


MY    EARLY   TRAINING   WITH    THE   TURKEYS    11 

day.  This  is  the  time  to  be  in  the  depths  of  the 
forest  in  quest  of  the  wild  turkey,  and  one 
should  be  near  their  roosting  place  if  possible, 
quietly  listening  and  watching  every  sound  and 
motion.  If  in  the  autumn  or  winter  you  are 
near  such  a  place,  you  are  likely  to  hear,  as  day 
breaks,  the  awakening  cluck  at  long  intervals; 
then  will  follow  the  long,  gentle,  quavering  call 
or  yelp  of  the  mother  hen,  arousing  her  sleeping 
brood  and  making  known  to  them  that  the  time 
has  arrived  for  leaving  their  roosts.  If  in  the 
early  spring,  you  will  listen  for  the  salutation  of 
the  old  gobbler. 


CHAPTER  II 

RANGE,    VARIATION,  AND  NAME 

WHEN  America  was  discovered  the  wild 
turkey  inhabited  the  wooded  portion  of 
the  entire  country,  from  the  southern 
provinces  of  Canada  and  southern  Maine,  south 
to  southern  Mexico,  and  from  Arizona,  Kansas, 
and  Nebraska,  east  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  As  the  turkey  is  not  a 
migratory  bird  in  the  sense  that  migration  is 
usually  interpreted,  and  while  the  range  of  the 
species  is  one  of  great  extent,  as  might  be  expected, 
owing  to  the  operation  of  the  usual  causes,  a 
number  of  subspecies  have  resulted.  At  the 
present  time,  ornithologists  recognize  four  of 
these  as  occurring  within  the  limits  of  the  United 
States,  as  set  forth  in  Chapter  IV  beyond. 

In  countries  thickly  settled,  as  in  the  one 
where  I  now  write,  there  is  a  great  variety  of  wild 
turkeys  scattered  about  in  the  woods  of  the 

12 


RANGE,  VARIATION,  AND  NAME       13 

small  creeks  and  hills.  Many  hybrid  wild  tur- 
keys are  killed  here  every  year.  The  cause  of  this 
is :  every  old  gobbler  that  dares  to  open  its  mouth 
to  gobble  in  the  spring  is  within  the  hearing  of 
farmers,  negroes,  and  others,  and  is  a  marked 
bird.  It  is  given  no  rest  until  it  is  killed;  hence 
there  are  few  or  no  wild  turkeys  to  take  care  of 
the  hens,  which  then  visit  the  domestic  gobbler 
about  the  farmyards.  Hence  this  crossing  with 
the  wild  one  is  responsible  for  a  great  variety  of 
plumages. 

I  once  saw  a  flock  of  hybrids  while  hunting 
squirrels  in  Pelahatchie  swamp,  Mississippi,  as 
I  sat  at  the  root  of  a  tree  eating  lunch,  about  one 
o'clock,  with  gun  across  my  lap,  as  I  never  wish 
to  be  caught  out  of  reach  of  my  gun.  Suddenly 
I  heard  a  noise  in  the  leaves,  and  on  looking  in 
that  direction  I  saw  a  considerable  flock  of 
turkeys  coming  directly  toward  me  in  a  lively 
manner,  eagerly  searching  for  food.  The  mo- 
ment these  birds  came  in  sight  I  saw  they  had 
white  tips  to  their  tails,  but  they  had  the  form 
and  action  of  the  wild  turkey,  and  it  at  once 
occurred  to  me  that  they  were  a  lot  of  mixed 


14       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

breeds,  half  wild,  half  tame,  with  the  freedom  of 
the  former.  I  noticed  also  among  them  one 
that  was  nearly  white  and  one  old  gobbler  that 
was  a  pure  wild  turkey;  but  it  was  too  far  off 
to  shoot  him.  Dropping  the  lunch  and  grasp- 
ing the  gun  was  but  the  work  of  a  second;  then 
the  birds  came  round  the  end  of  the  log  and 
began  scratching  under  a  beech  tree  for  nuts. 
Seeing  two  gobblers  put  their  heads  together 
at  about  forty  yards  from  me,  I  fired,  killing 
both.  The  flock  flew  and  ran  in  all  directions. 
One  hen  passed  within  twenty  paces  of  me  and 
I  killed  it  with  the  second  barrel.  A  closer 
examination  of  the  dead  birds  convinced  me 
that  there  had  been  a  cross  between  the  wild 
and  the  tame  turkeys.  The  skin  on  their  necks 
and  heads  was  as  yellow  as  an  orange,  or  more 
of  a  buckskin,  buff  color,  while  the  caruncles  on 
the  neck  were  tinged  with  vermilion,  giving  them 
a  most  peculiar  appearance;  all  three  of  those  slain 
had  this  peculiar  marking,  and  there  was  not  a 
shadow  of  the  blue  or  purple  of  the  wild  turkey 
about  their  heads,  while  all  other  points,  save  the 
white-tipped  feathers,  indicated  the  wild  blood. 


RANGE,  VARIATION,  AND  NAME      15 

Shortly  after  the  foregoing  incident,  while  a 
party  of  gentlemen,  including  my  brother,  were 
hunting  some  five  miles  below  the  same  creek, 
they  flushed  a  flock  of  wild  turkeys,  scattering 
them;  one  of  the  party  killed  four  of  them  that 
evening,  two  of  which  (hens)  were  full-blood 
wild  ones.  One  of  the  remaining  two,  a  fine 
gobbler,  had  as  red  a  head  as  any  tame  gobbler, 
and  the  tips  of  the  tail  and  rump  coverts  were 
white.  The  other  bird  (a  hen)  was  also  a  half- 
breed.  There  was  no  buff  on  their  heads  and 
necks,  but  the  purple  and  blue  of  the  wild  blood 
was  apparent. 

Early  the  next  morning  my  brother  went  to 
the  place  where  the  turkeys  were  scattered  the 
previous  afternoon,  and  began  to  call.  Very 
soon  he  had  a  reply,  and  three  fine  gobblers 
came  running  to  him,  when  he  killed  two,  one 
with  each  barrel;  now  these  were  full-blood  wild 
ones. 

I  have  no  tedthat  a  number  of  wild  turkeys  in  the 
Brazos  bottoms  are  very  different  in  some  respects 
from  the  turkeys  of  the  piney  woods  in  the  east- 
ern section  of  that  state.  In  Trinity  County, 


16       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

Texas,  I  found  the  largest  breed  of  wild  turkeys 
I  have  found  anywhere,  but  in  the  Brazos  bot- 
toms the  gobblers  which  I  found  there  in  1876, 
in  great  abundance,  were  of  a  smaller  stature, 
but  more  chunky  or  bulky.  Their  gobble  was 
hardly  like  that  of  a  wild  turkey,  the  sound 
resembling  the  gobble  of  a  turkey  under  a  barrel, 
a  hoarse,  guttural  rumble,  quite  different  in 
tone  from  the  clear,  loud,  rolling  gobble  of  his 
cousin  in  the  Trinity  country.  The  gobblers  of 
the  Brazos  bottoms  were  also  distinguishable 
by  their  peculiar  beards.  In  other  varieties  of 
turkeys  three  inches  or  less  of  the  upper  end  of 
the  beard  is  grayish,  while  those  of  the  Brazos 
bottoms  were  more  bunchy  and  black  up  to  the 
skin  of  the  breast.  There  is  a  variety  of  turkeys 
in  the  San  Jacinto  region,  in  the  same  state, 
which  is  quite  slender,  dark  in  color,  and  has  a 
beard  quite  thin  in  brush,  but  long  and  pictur- 
esque. His  gobble  is  shrill.  This  section  is  a 
low  plain,  generally  wet  in  the  spring,  partly  tim- 
bered and  partly  open  prairie.  It  is  a  great 
place  for  the  turkey. 

Since  the  days  of  Audubon  it  has  been  proph- 


RANGE,    VARIATION,    AND    NAME  17 

esied  that  the  wild  turkey  would  soon  become 
extinct.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  prophecies 
have  not  been  realized  up  to  the  present  time, 
even  with  the  improved  implements  of  destruc- 
tion and  great  increase  of  hunters.  There  is  no 
game  that  holds  its  own  so  well  as  the  wild  tur- 
key. This  is  particularly  true  in  the  southern 
Gulf  States,  where  are  to  be  found  heavily 
timbered  regions,  which  are  suited  to  the  habits 
of  this  bird.  Here  shelter  is  afforded  and  an 
ample  food  supply  is  provided  the  year  round. 
In  the  states  of  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  Texas,  Ar- 
kansas, Missouri,  and  the  Indian  Territory  the 
wild  turkey  is  still  to  be  found  in  reasonable 
abundance,  and  if  these  states  will  protect  them 
by  the  right  sort  of  laws,  I  am  of  the  opinion 
that  the  birds  will  increase  rapidly,  despite  the 
encroachment  of  civilization  and  the  war  waged 
upon  them  by  sportsmen.  It  is  not  the  legiti- 
mate methods  of  destruction  that  decimate  the 
turkey  ranks,  as  is  the  case  with  the  quail  and 
grouse,  but  it  is  the  nefarious  tricks  the  laws  in 
many  states  permit,  namely,  trapping  and  bait- 


18       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

ing.  The  latter  is  by  far  the  most  destructive, 
and  is  practised  by  those  who  kill  turkeys  for  the 
market,  and  frequently  by  those  who  want  to 
slaughter  these  birds  solely  for  count.  No  creat- 
ure, however  prolific,  can  stand  such  treatment 
long.  The  quail,  though  shot  in  great  numbers 
by  both  sportsmen  and  market  hunters,  and  an- 
nually destroyed  legitimately  by  the  thousands, 
stands  it  better  than  the  wild  turkey,  although 
the  latter  produces  and  raises  almost  as  many 
young  at  a  time  as  the  quail. 

There  are  two  reasons  for  this:  one  is,  the 
quail  are  not  baited  and  shot  on  the  ground ;  the 
other  reason  is  that  every  bobwhite  in  the  spring 
can,  and  does,  use  his  call,  thus  bringing  to  him 
a  mate;  but  the  turkey,  if  he  dares  to  gobble, 
no  matter  if  he  is  the  only  turkey  within  a  radius 
of  forty  miles,  has  every  one  who  hears  him  and 
can  procure  a  gun,  after  him,  and  they  pursue 
him  relentlessly  until  he  is  killed.  Among  the 
turkeys  the  hens  raised  are  greatly  in  excess  of 
the  gobblers.  This  fact  seems  to  have  been  pro- 
vided for  by  nature  in  making  the  male  turkey 
polygamous;  but  as  the  male  turkey  is,  during 


RANGE,   VARIATION,   AND   NAME  19 

the  spring,  a  very  noisy  bird,  continually  gob- 
bling and  strutting  to  attract  his  harem,  and 
as  he  is  much  larger  and  more  conspicuous  than 
the  hens,  it  is  only  natural  that  he  is  in  more 
danger  of  being  killed.  Suppose  the  proportion 
of  gobblers  in  the  beginning  of  the  spring  is 
three  to  fifteen  hens,  in  a  certain  stretch  of 
woods.  As  soon  as  the  mating  season  begins, 
these  gobblers  will  make  their  whereabouts 
known  by  their  noise;  result  —  the  gunners  are 
after  them  at  once,  and  the  chances  are  ten  to 
one  they  will  all  be  killed.  The  hens  will  then 
have  no  mate  and  no  young  will  be  produced; 
whereas,  if  but  one  gobbler  were  left,  each  of  our 
supposed  fifteen  hens  would  raise  an  average  of 
ten  young  each,  and  we  would  also  have  150 
new  turkeys  in  the  fall  to  yield  sport  and  food. 
It  has  always  been  my  practice  to  leave  at  least 
one  old  gobbler  in  each  locality  to  assist  the 
hens  in  reproduction.  If  every  hunter  would 
do  this  the  problem  of  maintaining  the  turkey 
supply  would  be  greatly  solved. 

The  greatest  of  all  causes  for  the  decrease  of 
wild  turkeys  lies  in  the  killing  of  all  the  old 


20       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

gobblers  in  the  spring.  Some  say  the  yearling 
gobblers  will  answer  every  purpose.  I  say  they 
will  not;  they  answer  no  purpose  except  to  grow 
and  make  gobblers  for  the  next  year.  The  hens 
are  all  right  —  you  need  have  no  anxiety  about 
them;  they  can  take  care  of  themselves;  pro- 
vided you  leave  them  a  male  bird  that  gobbles, 
they  will  do  the  rest.  Any  suitable  community 
can  have  all  the  wild  turkeys  it  wants  if  it  will 
obtain  a  few  specimens  and  turn  them  into  a 
small  woodland  about  the  beginning  of  spring, 
spreading  grain  of  some  sort  for  them  daily. 
The  turkeys  will  stay  where  the  food  is  abundant 
and  where  there  is  a  little  brush  in  which  to  retire 
and  rest. 

Some  hunters,  or  rather  some  writers,  claim 
that  the  only  time  the  wild  turkey  should  be  ' 
hunted  is  in  the  autumn  and  winter,  and  not  in 
the  spring.  I  have  a  different  idea  altogether, 
and  claim  that  the  turkey  should  not  be  hunted 
before  November,  if  then,  December  being 
better.  By  the  first  of  November  the  young 
gobbler  weighs  from  seven  to  nine  pounds,  the 
hens  from  four  to  seven  pounds;  in  December 


RANGE,    VARIATION,   AND    NAME  21 

and  January  the  former  weighs  twelve  pounds 
and  the  latter  nine  pounds.  There  you  are. 
But  suppose  you  did  not  hunt  in  the  spring  at  all. 
How  many  old,  long-bearded  gobblers  (the  joy 
and  delight  above  every  sort  of  game  on  earth 
to  the  turkey  hunter)  would  you  bag  in  a  year, 
or  a  lifetime?  Possibly  in  ten  years  you  would 
get  one,  unless  by  the  merest  accident,  as  they 
are  rarely,  if  ever,  found  in  company  with  the 
hens  or  young  gobblers,  but  go  in  small  bands 
by  themselves,  and  from  their  exclusive  and 
retiring  nature  it  is  a  rare  occasion  when  one  is 
killed  except  in  the  gobbling  season. 

Take  away  the  delight  of  the  gobbling  season 
from  the  turkey  hunter,  and  the  quest  of  the  wild 
turkey  would  lose  its  fascination.  In  so  express- 
ing myself,  I  do  not  advise  that  the  gobblers 
be  persecuted  and  worried  all  through  the  gob- 
bling season,  from  March  to  June,  but  believe 
they  could  be  hunted  for  a  limited  time,  namely, 
until  the  hens  begin  to  lay  and  the  gobblers 
to  lose  their  fat  —  say  until  the  first  of  April. 
Every  old  turkey  hunter  knows  where  to  stop, 
and  does  it  without  limitation  of  law.  Old 


22       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

gobblers  are  in  their  best  condition  until  about 
the  first  of  April,  then  they  begin  to  lose  flesh 
very  rapidly.  At  this  time  hunting  them  should 
be  abandoned  altogether. 

In  my  hunting  trips  after  this  bird  I  have 
covered  most  of  the  southern  states,  and  have 
been  interested  to  note  that  all  the  Indians  I 
have  met  called  the  turkey  "Furkee"  or  "Fir- 
kee";  the  tribes  I  have  hunted  with  include  the 
Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  Creeks,  Seminoles,  and 
the  Cherokees,  who  live  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  the  Alabams,  Conchattas,  and  Zunis 
of  the  west.  Whether  their  name  for  the  bird 
is  a  corruption  of  our  turkey,  or  whether  our 
word  is  a  corruption  of  their  "Furkee,"  lam  not 
prepared  to  state.  It  may  be  that  we  get  our 
name  direct  from  the  aboriginal  Indians.  All 
of  the  Indian  tribes  I  have  hunted  with  have 
legends  concerning  the  turkey,  and  to  certain  of 
the  Aztec  tribes  it  was  an  object  of  worship.  An 
old  Zuni  chief  once  told  me  a  curious  legend  of 
his  people  concerning  this  bird,  very  similar  to 
the  story  of  the  flood.  It  runs: 

Ages  ago,  before  man  came  to  live  on  the 


RANGE,    VARIATION,    AND    NAME  23 

earth,  all  birds,  beasts,  and  fishes  lived  in  har- 
mony as  one  family,  speaking  the  same  language, 
and  subsisting  on  sweet  herbs  and  grass  that 
grew  in  abundance  all  over  the  earth.  Sud- 
denly one  day  the  sun  ceased  to  shine,  the  sky 
became  covered  with  heavy  clouds,  and  rain 
began  to  fall.  For  a  long  time  this  continued, 
and  neither  the  sun,  moon,  nor  stars  were  seen. 
After  a  while  the  water  got  so  deep  that  the 
birds,  animals,  and  fishes  had  either  to  swim  or 
fly  in  the  air,  as  there  was  no  land  to  stand  on. 
Those  that  could  not  swim  or  fly  were  carried 
around  on  the  backs  of  those  that  could,  and 
this  kept  up  until  almost  every  living  thing  was 
almost  starved.  Then  all  the  creatures  held 
a  meeting,  and  one  from  each  kind  was  selected 
to  go  to  heaven  and  ask  the  Great  Spirit  to  send 
back  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  and  stop  the  rain. 
These  journeyed  a  long  way  and  at  last  found 
a  great  ladder  running  into  the  sky ;  they  climbed 
up  this  ladder  and  found  at  the  top  a  trapdoor 
leading  into  heaven,  and  on  passing  through  the 
door,  which  was  open,  they  saw  the  dwelling- 
place  of  man,  and  before  the  door  were  a  boy 


24       THE   WILD   TURKEY  AND   ITS   HUNTING 

and  girl  playing,  and  their  playthings  were  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars  belonging  to  the  earth.  As 
soon  as  the  earth  creatures  saw  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars,  they  rushed  for  them  and,  gathering 
tliem  into  a  basket,  took  the  children  of  man 
and  hurried  back  to  earth  through  the  trap- 
door. In  their  hurry  to  get  away  from  the  man 
whom  they  saw  running  after  them,  the  trap- 
door was  slammed  on  the  tail  of  the  bear,  cut- 
ting it  off.  The  blood  spattered  over  the  lynx 
and  trout,  and  since  that  time  the  bear  has  had 
no  tail,  and  the  lynx  and  trout  are  spotted. 
The  buffalo  fell  down  and  hurt  his  back  and 
has  had  a  hump  on  it  ever  since.  The  sun, 
moon,  and  stars  having  been  put  back  in  their 
places,  the  rain  stopped  at  once  and  the  waters 
quickly  dried  up.  On  the  first  appearance  of 
land,  the  turkey,  who  had  been  flying  around 
all  the  time,  lit,  although  warned  not  to  do  so 
by  the  other  creatures.  It  at  once  began  to 
sink  in  the  mud,  and  its  tail  stuck  to  the  mud  so 
tight  that  it  could  hardly  fly  up,  and  when  it 
did  get  away  the  end  of  its  tail  was  covered  with 
mud  and  is  stained  mud  color  to  this  day.  The 


RANGE,    VARIATION,    AND    NAME  25 

earth  now  having  become  dry  and  the  children 
of  man  now  lords  of  the  earth,  each  creature  was 
obliged  to  keep  out  of  their  way,  so  the  fishes 
took  to  the  waters  using  their  tails  to  swim  away 
from  man,  the  birds  took  to  their  wings,  and  the^ 
animals  took  to  their  legs ;  and  by  these  means  the 
birds,  beasts,  and  fishes  have  kept  out  of  man's 
way  ever  since. 

Before  dealing  with  the  wild  turkeys  as  they 
are  to-day,  it  will  be  well  to  make  a  short  study 
of  their  prehistoric  and  historic  standing;  this 
has  been  ably  done  for  me  by  Dr.  R.  W.  Shufeldt 
of  Washington,  D.  C.,  who  has  very  kindly 
written  for  this  work  the  next  two  chapters 
entitled  "The  Turkey  Prehistoric,"  and  "The 
Turkey  Historic." 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    TURKEY    PREHISTORIC 

PROBABLY  no  genus  of  birds  in  the 
American  avifauna  has  received  the 
amount  of  attention  that  has  been  be- 
stowed upon  the  turkeys.  Ever  since  the  coming 
to  the  New  World  of  the  very  first  explorers, 
who  landed  in  those  parts  where  wild  turkeys 
are  to  be  found,  there  has  been  no  cessation  of 
verbal  narratives,  casual  notices,  and  appear- 
ance of  elegant  literature  relating  to  the  mem- 
bers of  this  group.  We  have  not  far  to  seek  for 
the  reason  for  all  this,  inasmuch  as  a  wild  turkey 
is  a  very  large  and  unusually  handsome  bird, 
commanding  the  attention  of  any  one  who 
sees  it.  Its  habits,  extraordinary  behavior,  and 
notes  render  it  still  more  deserving  of  considera- 
tion ;  and  to  all  this  must  be  added  the  fact  that 
wild  turkeys  are  magnificent  game  birds;  the 
hunting  of  them  peculiarly  attractive  to  the 

26 


THE   TURKEY   PREHISTORIC  27 

sportsman;  while,  finally,  they  are  easily  domes- 
ticated and  therefore  have  a  great  commercial 
value  everywhere. 

The  extensive  literature  on  wild  and  domesti- 
cated turkeys  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Eng- 
lish language,  for  we  meet  with  many  references 
to  these  fowls,  together  with  accounts  and  descrip- 
tions of  them,  distributed  through  prints  and 
publications  of  various  kinds,  not  only  in  Latin, 
but  in  the  Scandinavian  languages  as  well  as 
in  French,  German,  Spanish,  Italian,  and  doubt- 
less in  others  of  the  Old  World.  Some  of  these 
accounts  appeared  as  long  ago  as  the  early  part 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  or  perhaps  even  ear- 
lier; for  it  is  known  that  Grijalva  discovered 
Mexico  in  1518,  and  Gomarra  and  Hernandez, 
whose  writings  appeared  soon  afterward,  gave, 
among  their  descriptions  of  the  products  of  that 
country,  not  only  the  wild  turkey,  but,  in  the 
case  of  the  latter  writer,  referred  to  the  wild  as 
well  as  to  the  domesticated  form,  making  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  two. 

In  order,  however,  to  render  our  history  of 
the  wild  turkeys  in  America  as  complete  as  pos- 


28       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

sible,  we  must  dip  into  the  past  many  centuries 
prior  to  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  by 
those  early  navigators.  We  must  go  back  to  the 
time  when  it  was  questionable  whether  man  ex- 
isted upon  this  continent  at  all.  In  other  words, 
we  must  examine  and  describe  the  material  rep- 
resenting our  extinct  turkeys  handed  us  by  the 
paleontologists,  or  the  fossilized  remains  of  the 
prehistoric  ancestors  of  the  family,  of  which 
we  have  at  hand  a  few  fragments  of  the  greatest 
value.  These  I  shall  refer  to  but  briefly  for 
several  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  their  tech- 
nical descriptions  have  already  appeared  in 
several  widely  known  publications,  and  in  the 
second,  what  I  have  here  to  say  about  them  is  in 
a  popular  work,  and  technical  descriptions  are 
not  altogether  in  place.  Finally,  such  material  as 
we  possess  is  very  meagre  in  amount  indeed,  and 
such  parts  of  it  as  would  in  any  way  interest  the 
general  reader  can  be  referred  to  very  briefly. 

The  fossil  remains  of  a  supposed  extinct  tur- 
key, described  by  Marsh1  as  Meleagris  altus  from 

'Marsh,  O.  C.  Proc.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Phila.,  1870,  p.  11.  Also  Am. 
Jour.  Sci.,  IV,  1872,  260.  In  a  letter  to  me  under  date  of  April  25,  1912, 
Dr.  George  F.  Eaton  of  the  Museum  of  Yale  University,  New  Haven, 


THE   TURKEY   PREHISTORIC  29 

the  Post-pliocene  of  New  Jersey,  is,  from  the 
literature  and  notices  on  the  subject,  now 
found  to  be  but  a  synonym  of  the  Meleagris 
superba  of  Cope  from  the  Pleistocene  of 
New  Jersey.  At  the  present  writing  I  have 
before  me  the  type  specimen  of  Meleagris 
altus  of  Marsh,  for  which  favor  I  am  in- 
debted to  Dr.  Charles  Schuchert  of  the  Pea- 
body  Museum  of  Yale  University.  My  account 
of  it  will  be  published  in  another  connection 
later  on. 

Some  years  after  Professor  Marsh  had  de- 
scribed this  material  as  representing  a  species  to 
which  I  have  just  said  he  gave  the  specific  name 
of  altus,  it  would  appear  that  I  did  not  fully 
concur  in  the  propriety  of  doing  so,  as  will  be 
seen  from  a  paper  I  published  on  the  subject 


Conn.,  writes  that  "Type  of  Meleagris  altus  is  in  Peabody  Museum  with 
other  types  of  fossil  Meleagris."  At  the  present  writing  I  am  not  in- 
formed as  to  what  these  "other  types"  are;  and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that 
the  museum  referred  to  by  Doctor  Eaton  has  no  fossil  meleagrine  material 
that  has  not,  up  to  date,  been  described.  See  also  Amer.  Nat.,  Vol. 
IV,  p.  317. 

Cope,  E.  D.  "Synopsis  of  Extinct  Batrachia,  etc."  Meleagris 
superbus  (Trans.  Amer.  Philos.  Soc.,  N.  S.  XIV,  Pt.  1,  1870,239).  A  long 
and  careful  description  of  M.  superbus  [superba]  will  be  found  here, 
where  the  species  is  said  to  be  "established  on  a  nearly  perfect  right  tibia, 
an  imperfect  left  one,  a  left  femur  with  the  condyles  broken  off,  and  a 
right  coracoid  bone,  with  the  distal  articular  extremity  imperfect." 


30       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

about  fifteen  years  ago.1  This  will  obviate  the 
necessity  of  saying  anything  further  in  regard  to 
M .  superba. 

So  far  as  my  knowledge  carries  me,  this 
leaves  but  two  other  fossil  wild  turkeys  of 
this  country,  both  of  which  have  been  de- 
scribed by  Professor  Marsh  and  generally 
recognized.  These  are  Meleagris  antiqua  in 
1871,  and  Meleagris  celer  in  1872.  My  com- 
ments on  both  of  these  species  will  be  found 
in  the  American  Naturalist  for  July,  1897,  on 
pages  648,  649.2 


'Shufeldt,  R.  W.,  "On  Fossil  Bird-Bones  Obtained  by  Expeditions  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  from  the  Bone  Caves  of  Tennessee." 
The  Amer.  Nat.,  July,  1897,  pp.  645-650.  Among  those  bones  were 
many  belonging  to  M.  g.  silvestris.  Professor  Marsh  declined  to  allow 
me  to  even  see  the  fossil  bones  upon  which  he  based  the  several  alleged 
new  species  of  extinct  Meleagridae  which  he  had  described. 

'Marsh,  O.  C.  [Title  on  page  120.]  Meleagris  antiqua.  Amer. 
Journ.  Sci.,  ser.  3,  II,  1871,  126.  From  this  I  extract  the  following 
description,  to  wit: — 

Meleagris  antiquus,  sp.  nov. 

A  large  Gallinaceous  Bird,  approaching  in  size  the  wild  Turkey,  and 
probably  belonging  to  the  same  group,  was  a  contemporary  of  the  Oreo- 
don  and  its  associates  during  the  formation  of  the  Miocene  lake  deposits 
east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  species  is  at  present  represented  only 
by  a  few  fragments  of  the  skeleton,  but  among  these  is  a  distal  end  of  a 
right  humerus,  with  the  characteristic  portions  all  preserved.  The  speci- 
men agrees  in  its  main  features  with  the  humerus  of  Meleagris  gallopavo 
Linn.,  the  most  noticeable  points  of  difference  being  the  absence  in  the 
fossil  species  of  the  broad  longitudinal  ridge  on  the  inner  surface  of  the 
distal  end,  opposite  the  radial  condyle,  and  the  abrupt  termination  of  the 
ulnar  condyle  at  its  outer,  superior  border. 


PLATE  I 


Types:  M .  antiqua;  M .  celer.  Marsh 

Fig.  i.  Anconal  aspect  of  the  distal  extremity  of  the  right  humerus  of  "Meleagris 
antiquus"  of  Marsh.  Fig.  2.  Palmar  aspect  of  the  same  specimen  as  shown  in  Fig.  i. 
Fig.  3.  Anterior  aspect  of  the  proximal  moiety  of  the  left  tarsometatarsus  of  Meleagris 
celer  of  Marsh.  Fig.  4.  Posterior  aspect  of  the  same  fragment  of  bone  shown  in  Fig.  3. 
Fig.  5.  Outer  aspect  of  the  same  fragment  of  bone  shown  in  Figs.  3  and  4.  All  figures 
natural  size.  Reproduced  from  photographs  made  direct  from  the  specimens  by  Dr.  R. 
W.  Shufeldt. 


THE    TURKEY    PREHISTORIC  31 

It  will  be  noted,  then,  that  Meleagris  antiqua 
of  Marsh  is  practically  represented  by  the  imper- 
fect distal  extremity  of  a  right  humerus ;  and  that 
Meleagris  celer  of  the  same  paleontologist  from 
the  Pleistocene  of  New  Jersey  is  said  to  be  repre- 
sented by  the  bones  enumerated  in  a  foregoing 
footnote.  In  this  connection  let  it  be  borne  in 
mind  that,  while  I  found  fossil  specimens  of 
Meleagris  g.  silvestris  in  the  bone  caves  of  Ten- 
nessee, I  found  no  remains  of  fossil  turkeys  in 
Oregon,  from  whence  some  classifiers  of  fossil 


Measurements. 

Greatest  diameter  of  humerus  at  distal  end     .      .     12.  lines 

Transverse  diameter  of  ulnar  cbndyle     .      .      .      .       3.4 

Vertical  diameter  of  same 4 . 

Transverse  diameter  of  radial  condyle    .      .      .      .       4.25 
The  specimens  on  which  this  species  is  based  were  discovered  by  Mr. 
G.  B.  Grinnell  of  the  Yale  party,  in  the  Miocene  clay  deposits  of  north- 
ern Colorado." 

Ibid.  IV,  1872,261.  [Title  on  p.  256.]  "Art  XXX.  Notice  of  some 
new  Tertiary  and  Post-Tertiary  Birds."  From  this  article  by  Pro- 
fessor Marsh  I  extract  the  following: 

Meleagris  celer,  sp.  nov. 

A  much  smaller  species  of  the  same  genus  is  represented  by  two  tibiae 
and  the  proximal  half  of  a  tarso-metatarsal,  which  were  found  together, 
and  probably  belonged  to  the  same  individual.  The  tibia  is  slender,  and 
has  the  shaft  less  flattened  from  before  backward  than  in  the  last  species 
[M.  altus] .  The  distal  half  of  the  shaft  has  its  anterior  face  more  dis- 
tinctly polygonal.  From  the  head  of  the  tibia  a  sharp  ridge  descends  a 
short  distance  on  the  posterior  face,  where  it  is  met  by  an  external  ridge 
of  similar  length.  The  tarso-metatarsal  has  the  external  ridge  of  the 
proximal  end  more  prominent,  and  the  posterior  tendinal  crest  more  os- 
sified than  in  the  larger  species.  The  remains  preserved  indicate  a  bird 
about  half  the  bulk  oi  M.  altus. 


32       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

birds  state  that  M.  antiqua  caine  (A.  O.  TJ.  Check- 
Listed,  1910,  p.  3881). 

On  the  19th  of  April  1912,  I  communicated 
by  letter  with  Dr.  George  F.  Eaton,  of  the 
Museum  of  Yale  University,  in  regard  to  the 
fossils  described  by  Marsh  of  M.  antiqua  and 

Measurements. 

Length  of  tibia 183.       mm 

Greatest  diameter   of  proximal  end 34. 

Transverse  diameter  of  shaft  at  middle       .      .      .      .         9.6 

Transverse  diameter  of  distal  end 16.5 

Antero-posterior  diameter  of  outer  condyle       ...       10. 

Transverse  diameter  of  proximal  end  of  tarso-metatarsus  19 . 

Antero-posterior  diameter 14. 

On  page  260  is  described  Meleagris  altus: 

Meleagris  altus  [Marsh].  Proc.  Phila.  Acad.  1870,  p.  11,  and  Amer. 
Nat.,  Vol.  IV,  p.  317.  (M.  superbus  Cope,  Synopsis  Extinct  Ba- 
trachia  etc.,  p.  239.) 

(Followed  by  description  and  the  following  measurements  of  the 
fossil  bones.) 

Length  (approx.)  of  humerus 159.5     mm 

Greatest  diameter  proximal  end 42. 

Greatest  diameter  distal  end 33. 

Length  of  coracoid 122. 

Transverse  diameter  of  lower  end      .      .      .      .      .       37.5 

Length  of  femur 150. 

Transverse  diameter  of  distal  end 31. 

Length  of  tibia 243. 

Transverse  diameter  of  distal  end 18. 

Length  of  tarso-metatarsus 176. 

Transverse  diameter  of  proximal  end     ....       23. 

Distance  from  proximal  end  to  spur      .      .      .      .     110. 
(A  number  of  differences  as  compared  with  existing  species  are  enumerated ) 

'Shufeldt,  R.  W.  A  Study  of  the  Fossil  Avifauna  of  the  Equus  Beds 
of  the  Oregon  Desert.  Journ.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Phila.,  ser.  2,  IX,  1892, 
pp.  389-425.  Pis.  XV-XVII.  Advance  abstracts  of  this  memoir  were 
published  in  The  Auk  (Vol.  VIII,  No.  4,  October,  1891,  pp.  365-368). 
The  American  Naturalist  (Vol.  XXV,  No.  292,  Apr.,  1891,  pp.  303-306, 
and  ibid  No.  297,  Sept.,  1891,  pp.  818-821)  and  elsewhere.  Although 
no  turkeys  were  discovered  among  these  fossils,  there  were  bones  present 
of  extinct  grouse. 


THE   TURKEY   PREHISTORIC  33 

M.  celer,  with  the  view  of  borrowing  them  for 
examination.  Dr.  Eaton,  with  great  kindness, 
at  once  interested  himself  in  the  matter,  and 
wrote  me  (April  20,  1912)  that  "We  have  a  wise 
rule  forbidding  us  to  lend  type  material,  but  1 
shall  be  glad  to  ask  Professor  Schuchert  to  make 
an  exception  in  your  favor."  In  due  time 
Prof.  Charles  Schuchert,  then  curator  of  the 
Geological  Department  of  the  Peabody  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History  of  Yale  University, 
wrote  me  on  the  subject  (May  2,  1912),  and 
with  marked  courtesy  granted  the  request 
made  of  him  by  Dr.  Eaton,  and  forwarded  me 
the  type  specimen  of  Marsh  of  M.  antique,  and 
M.  celer  by  registered  mail.  They  were  received 
on  the  3rd  of  May,  1912,  and  I  made  negatives 
of  the  two  specimens  on  the  same  day.  It 
affords  me  pleasure  to  thank  both  Professor 
Schuchert  and  Dr.  Eaton  here  for  the  unusual 
privilege  I  enjoyed,  through  their  assistance,  in 
the  loan  of  these  specimens;1  also  Dr.  James  E. 


'Upon  examining  this  material  after  it  came  into  my  hands,  I  found 
first,  in  a  small  tube  closed  with  a  cork,  the  distal  end  of  the  right  hum- 
erus  of  some  large  bird.  The  cork  was  marked  on  the  side,  "Type,"  on 
top  "Mel.  antiquus.  G.  Ranch.  Col.  G.  B.  G.  August  6,  1870."  The 
specimen  is  pure  white,  thoroughly  fossilized,  and  imperfect.  The 


34        THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

Benedict,  Curator  of  Exhibits  of  the  U.  S.  Na- 
tional Museum,  and  Dr.  Charles  W.  Richmond  of 
the  Divison  of  Birds  of  that  institution,  for  their 
kindness  in  permitting  me  to  examine  and  make 
notes  upon  a  mounted  skeleton  of  a  wild  turkey 
(M.  g.  silvestris)  taken  by  Prof.  S.  F.  Baird  at 
Carlisle,  Penn.,  many  years  ago.  Mr.  Newton 
P.  Scudder,  librarian  of  the  National  Museum, 
likewise  has  my  sincere  thanks  for  his  kindness 
in  placing  before  me  the  many  volumes  on  the 
history  of  the  turkey  I  was  obliged  to  consult 
in  connection  with  the  preparation  of  this 
chapter. 

From  what  has  already  been  set  forth  above,  it 
is  clear  that  Marsh's  specimen  (for  he  attached 
but  scant  importance  to  the  other  fragments  with 
it),  upon  which  he  based  "Meleagris  antiquus" 
was  not  taken  in  Oregon,  but  in  Colorado.1 

second  of  the  two  specimens  received  is  in  a  small  pasteboard  box, 
marked  on  top  "Birds.  Meleagris,  sp.  nov.  N.  J.,  Meleagrops  celer 
(type)."  The  specimen  is  the  imperfect,  proximal  moiety  of  the  left 
tarso-metatarsus  of  a  rather  large  bird.  It  is  thoroughly  fossilized, 
earth-brown  in  color,  with  the  free  borders  of  the  proximal  end  con- 
siderably worn  off.  On  its  postero-external  aspect,  written  in  ink,  are 
the  words  "M.  celer." 

1  In  making  this  statement,  I  take  the  words  of  Dr.  Geo.  Bird  Grin- 
nell  as  written  on  the  cork  of  the  bottle  containing  the  specimen  to  be 
correct,  and  not  the  locality  given  elsewhere.  (The  A.  O.  U.  Check-List 
of  North  American  Birds.  Third  Edition,  1910,  p.  388.)  Moreover,  the 


THE   TURKEY   PREHISTORIC  35 

Both  of  these  fossils  I  have  very  critically  com- 
pared with  the  corresponding  parts  of  the  bones 
represented  in  each  case  in  the  skeleton  of  an 
adult  wild  turkey  (Meleagris  g.  silvestris)  in  the 
collection  of  mounted  bird  skeletons  in  the  U.  S. 
National  Museum. 

Taking  everything  at  my  command  into  con- 
sideration as  set  forth  above,  as  well  as  the  extent 
of  Professor  Marsh's  knowledge  of  the  osteology 
of  existing  birds  —  not  heretofore  referred  to  — 
I  am  of  the  opinion,  that  in  the  case  of  his  Melea- 
gris antiqua,  the  material  upon  which  it  is  based 
is  altogether  too  fragmentary  to  pronounce, 
with  anything  like  certainty,  that  it  ever  be- 
longed to  a  turkey  at  all.  In  the  first  place,  it 
is  a  very  imperfect  fragment  (Plate  1,  Figs.  1 
and  2) ;  in  the  second,  it  does  not  typically  pre- 
sent the  "characteristic  portions"  of  that  end 
of  the  humerus  in  a  turkey,  as  Professor  Marsh 
states  it  does.  Thirdly,  the  distal  end  of  the 
humerus  is  by  no  means  a  safe  fragment  of  the 
skeleton  of  hardly  any  bird  to  judge  from. 

specimen  is  pure  white,  which  is  characteristic  of  the  fossils  found  in 
the  White  River  region  of  Colorado.  This  is  confirmed  by  Professor 
Marsh  in  his  article  quoted  above. 


36       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

Finally,  it  is  questionable  whether  the  genus 
Meleagris  existed  at  all,  as  such,  at  the  time  the 
"Miocene  clay  deposits  of  northern  Colorado" 
were  deposited. 

That  this  fragment  may  have  belonged  to  the 
skeleton  of  some  big  gallinaceous  fowl  the  size 
of  an  adult  existing  Meleagris  —  and  long  ago 
extinct  —  I  in  no  way  question;  but  that  it  was 
a  true  turkey,  I  very  much  doubt. 

Still  more  uncertain  is  the  fragment  repre- 
senting Meleagris  celer  of  Marsh.  (Plate  1,  Figs. 
3-5.)  The  tibia  mentioned  I  have  not  seen, 
and  of  them  Professor  Marsh  states  that  they 
only  "probably  belonged  to  the  same  indi- 
vidual" (see  anted).  As  to  this  proximal  moiety 
of  the  tarso-metatarsus,  it  is  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  the  corresponding  part  of  that  bone 
in  Meleagris  g.  silvestris.  In  it  the  hypotarsus 
is  twice  grooved,  longitudinally;  whereas  in  M. 
g.  silvestris  there  is  but  a  single  median  groove. 
In  the  latter  bird  there  is  a  conspicuous  osseous 
ridge  extending  far  down  the  shaft  of  the  bone, 
it  being  continued  from  the  internal,  thickened 
border  of  the  hypotarsus.  This  ridge  is  only 


THE   TURKEY    PREHISTORIC  37 

indicated  on  the  fossil  bone,  having  either  been 
broken  off  or  never  existed  at  all.  In  any  event 
it  is  not  present  in  the  specimen.  The  general 
fades  of  the  fossil  is  quite  different  from  that 
part  of  the  tarso-metatarsus  in  an  existing  wild 
turkey,  and  to  me  it  does  not  seem  to  have  come 
from  the  skeleton  of  the  pelvic  limb  of  a  mele- 
agrine  fowl  at  all.  It  may  have  belonged  to  a 
bird  of  the  galline  group,  not  essentially  a  tur- 
key; while  on  the  other  hand  it  may  have  been 
from  the  skeleton  of  some  large  wader,  not  nec- 
essarily related  to  either  the  true  herons  or  storks. 
Some  of  the  herons,  for  example,  (Ardea]  have 
"the  hypotarsus  of  the  tarso-metatarsus  three- 
crested,  graduated  in  size,  the  outer  being  the 
smaller;  the  tendinal  grooves  pass  between 
them."1  As  just  stated,  the  hypotarsus  of  the 
tarso-metatarsus  in  Meleagris  celer  of  Marsh  is 
three-crested,  and  the  tendinal  grooves  pass  be- 
tween them.  In  M.  g.  silvestris  this  process  is 
but  two-crested  and  the  median  groove  passes 
between  them. 


i  Shufeldt,  R.  W.  "Osteological  Studies  of  the  Subfamily  Ardeinse." 
Journ.  Com  p.  Med.  and  Surg.,Vol.  X,  No.  4,  Phila.,  October,  1889,  pp. 
287-317. 


38        THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

The  sternum  of  the  turkey,  if  we  have  it 
practically  complete,  is  one  of  the  most  char- 
acteristic bones  of  the  skeleton;  but  Professor 
Marsh  had  no  such  material  to  guide  him  when 
he  pronounced  upon  his  fossil  turkeys.  Had  I 
made  new  species,  based  on  the  fragments  of 
fossil  long  bones  of  all  that  I  have  had  for  exami- 
nation, quite  a  numerous  little  extinct  avifauna 
would  have  been  created. 

* '  1 1  is  often  a  positive  detriment  to  science,  in  my 
opinion,  to  create  new  species  of  fossil  birds  upon 
the  distal  ends  of  long  bones,  and  surely  no  assist- 
ance whatever  to  those  who  honestly  endeavor  to 
gain  some  idea  of  the  avian  species  that  really 
existed  during  prehistoric  times."1 

iShufeldt.  R.  W.  Amer.  Nat,  July,  1897,  p.  648.  I  have  had  no 
occasion  to  change  my  opinion  since. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC 

HAVING  disposed  of  such  records  as  we 
have    of  the  extinct  ancestors  of  the 
American    turkeys  —  the    so-to-speak 
meleagrine  records  —  we  can  now  pass  to  what 
is,  comparatively  speaking,  the  modern  history 
of  these  famous  birds,  although  some  of  this 
history  is  already  several  centuries  old. 

We  have  seen  in  the  foregoing  chapter  that 
all  the  described  fossil  species  of  turkeys  have 
been  restricted  to  the  genus  Meleagris,  and  this 
is  likewise  the  case  with  the  existing  species  and 
subspecies.  Right  here  I  may  say  that  the 
word  Meleagris  is  Greek  as  well  as  Latin,  and 
means  a  guinea-fowl.  This  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  when  turkeys  were  first  described  and 
written  about  they  were,  by  several  authors  of 
the  early  times,  strangely  mixed  up  with  those 
African  forms,  and  the  two  were  not  entirely 

39 


40       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

disentangled  for  some  time,  as  we  shall  see 
further  on  in  this  chapter.  In  modern  orni- 
thology, however,  the  generic  name  of  Meleagris 
has  been  transferred  from  the  guinea-fowls  to 
the  turkeys.  These  last,  as  they  are  classified 
in  "The  A.  O.  U.  Check-List  of  the  American 
Ornithologists'  Union,"  which  is  the  latest 
authoritative  word  upon  the  subject,  stand  as 

follows : 

Family  MELEAGBID^B.    Turkeys. 

Genus   MELEAGRIS  Linnaeus. 

Meleagris  Linnaeus,  Syst.  Nat.,  ed.  10,  1,  1758,  156. 
Type,  by  subs,  desig.,  Meleagris  gallopavo  Linnaeus 
(Gray,  1840). 

Meleagris  gallopavo  (Linnaeus). 

Range. —  Eastern  and  south  central  United  States, 
west  to  Arizona  and  south  to  the  mountains  of  Oaxaca. 

a.  [Meleagris  gallopavo  gallopavo.     Extralimital.] 

b.  Meleagris  gallopavo  silvestris  Vieillot.    Wild  Tur- 
key [310a]. 

Meleagris  silvestris  Vieillot  Nouv.,  Diet.  d'Hist.  Nat., 
IX,  1817, 447. 

Range.  —  Eastern  United  States  from  Nebraska,  Kan- 
sas, western  Oklahoma,  and  eastern  Texas  east  to  central 
Pennsylvania,  and  south  to  the  Gulf  coast;  formerly 
north  to  South  Dakota,  southern  Ontario,  and  southern 
Maine. 

c.  Meleagris  gallopavo  merriami  Nelson.     Merriam's 
Turkey  [310]. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  41 

Meleagris  aallopavo  merriami  Nelson,  Auk,  XVII, 
April,  1900, 120. 

(47  miles  southwest  of  Winslow,  Arizona.) 

Range. —  Transition  and  Upper  Sonoran  zones  in  the 
mountains  of  southern  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
western  Texas,  northern  Sonora,  and  Chihuahua. 

d.  Meleagris  gallopavo  osceola  Scott.     Florida  Tur- 
key [3106]. 

Meleagris   gallopavo    osceola    Scott,   Auk,    VII,    Oct., 
1890, 376.    (Tarpon  Springs,  Florida.) 
Range.  —  Southern  Florida. 

e.  Meleagris    gallopavo    intermedia     Sennett.      Rio 
Grande  Turkey  [310c]. 

Meleagris  gallopavo  intermedia  Sennett.  Bull.  U.  S. 
Geol.  &  Geog.  Surv.  Terr.,  V,  No.  3,  Nov.,  1879,  428. 
(Lomita,  Texas.) 

Range. —  Middle  northern  Texas  south  to  northeastern 
Coahuila,  Nuevo  Leon,  and  Tamaulipas. 

The  presenting  of  the  above  list  here  does 
away  with  giving,  in  the  history  of  the  wild  tur- 
keys, any  of  the  very  numerous  changes  that 
have  taken  place  through  the  ages  which  led  up 
to  its  adoption.  The  discussion  of  these  changes, 
as  a  part  of  meleagrine  history,  would  make  an 
octavo  volume  of  two  hundred  pages  or  more. 

It  may  be  said  here,  however,  that  the  word 
gallopavo  is  from  the  Latin,  gallus  a  cock,  and 
pavo  a  peafowl,  while  the  meanings  of  the  several 


42       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

words  silvestris,  merriami,  osceola,  and  intermedia 
are  self-evident  and  require  no  definitions. 

Audubon,  who  gives  the  breeding  range  of  the 
wild  turkey  as  extending  "from  Texas  to  Mas- 
sachusetts and  Vermont"  (Vol.  V.,  p.  56),  says 
of  them  in  his  long  account:  "I  have  ascertained 
that  some  of  these  valuable  birds  are  still  to  be 
found  in  the  states  of  New  York,  Massachusetts, 
Vermont,  and  Maine.  In  the  winter  of  1832-33, 
I  purchased  a  few  fine  males  in  the  city  of  Bos- 
ton"; and  further,  "At  the  time  when  I  removed 
to  Kentucky,  rather  more  than  a  fourth  of  a  cen- 
tury ago,  turkeys  were  so  abundant  that  the 
price  of  one  in  the  market  was  not  equal  to  that 
of  a  common  barn-fowl  now.  I  have  seen  them 
offered  for  the  sum  of  three  pence  each,  the  birds 
weighing  from  ten  to  twelve  pounds.  A  first- 
rate  turkey,  weighing  from  twenty -five  to  thirty 
pounds  avoirdupois,  was  considered  well  sold 
when  it  brought  a  quarter  of  a  dollar."1 

From  these  remarks  we  may  imagine  how 
plentiful  wild  turkeys  must  have  been  on  the 

'Audubon,  J.  J.  "The  Birds  of  America,"  Vol.  V,  pp.  54-55.  Even 
in  Audubon's  time  the  wild  turkeys  were  being  rapidly  exterminated. 
At  this  time  At.  g.  silvestris  does  not  occur  east  of  central  Pennsylvania. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  43 

North  American  continent,  when  Aristotle  wrote 
his  work  "On  Animals,"  over  three  hundred 
years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  upward  of 
twenty -three  centuries  ago!  A  good  many 
changes  can  take  place  in  the  avifauna  of  a 
country  in  that  time. 

How  these  big,  gallinaceous  fowls  ever  got  the 
name  of  "turkey"  has  long  been  a  matter  of  dis- 
pute; and  not  a  few  ornithologists  and  writers 
of  note  in  the  16th  and  17th  centuries  errone- 
ously conceived  that  the  term  had  something  to 
do  either  with  the  Turks  or  their  country.  But 
this  idea  has  now  been  entirely  abandoned,  for  it 
has  become  quite  clear  that,  during  the  times 
mentioned,  the  turkey  was  strangely  confused 
with  the  guinea-fowl,  a  bird  to  which  the  name 
turkey  was  originally  applied. 

Later  on,  both  these  birds  became  more  abun- 
dant, as  more  of  them  were  domesticated  and 
reared  in  captivity,  and  the  fact  was  gradually 
realized  that  they  were  entirely  different  species 
of  fowls.  During  these  times,  the  word  turkey 
was  finally  applied  only  to  the  New  World 
species,  and  the  West  African  form  was  there- 


44        THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

after  called  "  Guinea-fowl."1  After  the  word 
turkey  was  more  generally  applied  to  the  bird 
now  universally  so  known,  some  believe  that 
there  was  another  reason  as  to  how  it  came  about, 
and  this  "possibly  because  of  its  reputed  call- 
note,"  says  Newton,  "to  be  syllabled  turk,  turk, 
turk,  whereby  it  may  be  almost  said  to  have 
named  itself."  (Notes  and  Queries,  ser.  6,  III, 
pp.23,369.)2 

So  much  for  the  origin  of  the  name  turkey;  and 
when  one  comes  to  search  through  the  literature 
devoted  to  this  fowl  to  ascertain  who  first  de- 
scribed the  wild  species,  the  opinion  seems  to  be 


'Columella.  (De  Re  Rustica,  VIII,  cap.  2.)  Edwards  (Gleanings,  II, 
p.  269).  1760? 

'Newton,  Alfred.  A  Dictionary  of  Birds.  (Assisted  by  Hans  Gadow, 
with  contributions  from  Richard  Lydekker,  Chas.  S.  Roy,  and  Robert 
W.  Shufeldt,  M.  D.)  Ft.  IV,  1896,  p.  994.  The  quotation  is  from  the 
Art.  "Turkey,"  and  in  further  reference  to  its  name,  Professor  New- 
ton remarks,  "The  French  Coq  and  Poule  d"  Inde  (whence  Dindon) 
involve  no  contradiction,  looking  to  the  general  idea  of  what  India  then 
was.  One  of  the  earliest  German  names  for  the  bird,  Kalekuttisch  Hiim 
(whence  the  Scandinavian  Kalkuri)  must  have  arisen  through  some  mis- 
take at  present  inexplicable;  but  this  does  not  refer,  as  is  generally  sup- 
posed, to  Calcutta,  but  to  Calicut  on  the  Malabar  coast  (Notes  and 
Queries,  ser.  6,  X,  p.  185). 

"But  even  Linnaeus  could  not  clear  himself  of  the  confusion,  and, 
possibly  following  Sibbald,  unhappily  misapplied  the  name  Meleagris, 
undeniably  belonging  to  the  guinea-fowl,  as  the  generic  term  for  what 
we  now  know  as  the  turkey,  adding  thereto  as  its  specific  designation 
the  word  gallopavo,  taken  from  the  Gallopavus  of  Gesner,  who,  though  not 
wholly  free  from  error,  was  less  mistaken  than  some  of  his  contemporaries 
and  even  successors." 


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THE    TURKEY   HISTORIC  45 

pretty  general  that  this  was  done  by  Oviedo  in 
the  thirty-sixth  chapter  of  his  "Summario  de  la 
Natural  Historia  de  las  Indias,"  which  it  is 
stated  appeared  about  the  year  1527. 

Professor  Spencer  F.  Baird,  apparently  quot- 
ing Martin,  says:  "Oviedo  speaks  of  the  turkey 
as  a  kind  of  peacock  abounding  in  New  Spain, 
which  had  already  in  1526  been  transported  in  a 
domestic  state  to  the  West  India  Islands  and 
the  Spanish  Main,  where  it  was  kept  by  the 
Christian  colonists."1 

In  an  elegant  and  comprehensive  article  on 
"The  Wild  Turkey,"  Bennett  states:  "Oviedo, 
whose  Natural  History  of  the  Indies  contains  the 
earliest  description  extant  of  the  bird,  and  whose 
acquaintance  with  the  animal  productions  of  the 
newly  discovered  countries  was  surprisingly  ex- 
tensive. He  speaks  of  it  as  a  kind  of  Peacock 

1  Baird,  Spencer  F.  The  Origin  of  the  Domestic  Turkey.  Rep.  of 
the  Comm.  of  Agricul.  for  the  year  1866.  Washington  Gov.  Printing 
Office,  1867,  pp.  288-290.  In  this  article  Professor  Baird  undertakes  to 
demonstrate  "that  there  are  two  species  of  wild  turkey  in  North  Amer- 
ica; one  confined  to  the  more  eastern  and  southern  United  States,  the 
other  to  the  southern  Rocky  Mountains  and  adjacent  part  of  Texas,  New 
Mexico,  and  Arizona;  that  the  latter  extends  along  eastern  Mexico  as  far 
south  at  least  as  Orizaba,  and  that  it  is  from  this  Mexican  species  and 
not  from  that  of  eastern  North  America  that  this  domestic  turkey  is 
derived."  [Reprinted  in  Hist,  of  N.  Amer.  Birds,  III,  p.  411,  foot- 
note.] 


46       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

found  in  New  Spain,  of  which  a  number  had  been 
transported  to  the  islands  of  the  Spanish  Main, 
and  domesticated  in  the  houses  of  the  Christian 
inhabitants.  His  description  is  exceedingly  ac- 
curate, and  proves  that  before  the  year  1526, 
when  his  work  was  published  at  Toledo,  the 
turkey  was  already  reduced  to  a  state  of  Do- 
mestication."1 

Again,  in  a  very  elaborate  and  now  thoroughly 
classical  contribution,  Pennant  states:  "The 
first  precise  description  of  these  birds  is  given 
by  Oviedo,  who,  in  1525,  drew  up  a  summary  of 
his  greater  work,  the  History  of  the  Indies,  for 
the  use  of  his  monarch  Charles  V.2  This  learned 
man  had  visited  the  West  Indies  and  its  islands 
in  person,  and  payed  particular  regard  to  the 
natural  history.  It  appears  from  him,  that  the 
Turkey  was  in  his  days  an  inhabitant  of  the 
greater  islands  and  of  the  main-land.  He  speaks 

'Bennett,  E.  T.  "The  Gardens  and  Menagerie  of  the  Zoological 
Society  delineated."  [The  Drawings  by  William  Harvey;  Engr.  by 
Branston  and  Wright,  assisted  by  other  artists]  London,  1835.  Further 
on,  this  article  will  be  quoted  on  other  points,  as  it  treats  of  the  entire 
history  of  the  wild  turkey. 

*In  the  original  work,  here  quoted,  names  of  persons  and  some 
other  nouns  are  printed  in  capitals  —  an  old  custom  which  the  pub- 
lishers of  the  present  work  decided  not  to  follow.  My  MS.  was  made 
to  agree  with  the  original  in  all  particulars.  R.  W.  S. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  47 

of  them  as  Peacocks;  for  being  a  new  bird  to 
him,  he  adopts  that  name  from  the  resemblance 
he  thought  they  bore  to  the  former.  'But/ 
says  he,  'the  neck  is  bare  of  feathers,  but  cov- 
ered with  a  skin  which  they  change  after  their 
phantasie  into  diverse  colours.  They  have  a  horn 
(in  the  Spanish  Pegon  corto)  as  it  were  on  their 
front,  and  hairs  on  the  breast.'  (In  Purchas, 
III,  995.)  He  describes  other  birds  which  he 
also  calls  Peacocks.  They  are  of  the  galli- 
naceous genus,  and  known  by  the  name  of  Curas- 
sao  birds,  the  male  of  which  is  black,  the  female 
ferruginous."1 


'Pennant,  Thos.  Esqr.  F.  R.  S.  "An  Account  of  the  Turkey." 
Phil.  Trans,  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London.  Vol.  LXXI  for  the  year 
1781.  London  [Art.]  No.  1.  Communicated  by  Joseph  Banks,  Esqr., 
P.  R.  S.  Read  December  21,  1781,  pp.  77,  78. 

Pennant's  contribution  fills  a  large  place  in  the  literature  of  the  wild 
turkey,  and  further  on  I  shall  take  occasion  to  quote  still  more  extensively 
from  it.  It  starts  in  by  giving  in  brief  the  characters  of  the  turkey,  and 
in  describing  the  wild  turkey  he  cites  the  previous  works  of  Josselyn 
(Voyage);  Clayton  (Virginia);  Catesby,  Belon,  Gesner,  Aldrovandus, 
Ray,  Buff  on,  and  others.  He  gives  a  "Description"  of  the  bird,  espe- 
cially the  "Tail,"  and  adds  that  a  "White  Turkey"  —  "A  most  beautiful 
kind  has  of  late  been  introduced  into  England  of  a  snowy  whiteness,  finely 
contrasting  with  its  red  head.  These  I  think  came  from  Holland,  prob- 
ably bred  from  an  accidental  white  pair;  and  from  them  preserved  pure 
from  any  dark  or  variegated  birds."  (p.  68.) 

He  presents  variation  in  "Size,"  quoting  Josselyn  (New-Eng.  Rari- 
ties); Lawson  (History  of  Carolina);  and  Clayton  (Phil.  Trans.).  Also 
their  " Manners" ;  their  being  " Gregarious" ;  "Their  Haunts,"  "Place," 
and  much  else,  having  more  to  do  with  their  habits  than  their  history, 
and  consequently  not  legitimately  to  be  touched  upon  in  this  chapter. 


48       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

Dr.  Coues,  who  has  also  written  an  article  on 
the  history  of  the  wild  turkey,  which,  by  the 
way,  is  mainly  composed  of  a  lengthy  quotation 
from  the  above  cited  article  of  Bennett's,  says: 
"Linnaeus,  however,  knew  perfectly  well  that 
the  turkey  was  American.  He  says  distinctly: 
'  Habitat  in  America  septentrionali,'  and  quotes  as 
his  first  reference  (after  Fn.  Soec.  198),  the  Gallo- 
pavo  sylvestris  novas  anglice,  or  New  England 
Wild  Turkey  of  Ray.  Brisson  distinguished  the 
two  perfectly,  giving  an  elaborate  description, 
a  copious  synonomy,  and  a  good  figure  of  each; 
and  from  about  this  time  it  may  be  considered 
that  the  history  of  the  two  birds,  so  widely  di- 
verse, was  finally  disentangled,  and  the  proper 
habitat  ascribed  to  each."  (Refers  to  first  de- 
scribers  of  the  pintado  and  turkey.)  * 

So  much  for  the  earliest  describers  of  the  wild 

lCoues,  Elliott.  "  History  of  the  Wild  Turkey."  Forest  and  Stream, 
XIII,  January  1,  1879,  p.  947. 

Another  work  I  have  examined  on  this  part  of  our  subject  is  D.  G. 
Elliot's  "Game  Birds  of  America,"  and  the  turkey  cuts  in  this  book  were 
copied  by  Coues  into  the  last  edition  of  his  "Key  to  North  American 
Birds,"  and  very  poorly  done.  Dr.  D.  G.  Elliot's  superb  work,  illus- 
trated by  magnificent  colored  plates  by  the  artist  Wolfe,  on  "A  Mono- 
graph of  the  Phasianidse  or  the  Family  of  the  Pheasants,"  I  have  not 
examined.  The  copy  in  the  Library  of  Congress  was  out  on  a  loan  when 
I  made  application  for  it.  Several  plates  of  different  species  of  wild 
turkeys  are  to  be  found  in  it. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  49 

turkey,  and  I  shall  now  pass  on  to  the  general 
history  of  the  bird,  and,  through  presenting  what 
has  been  collected  for  us  by  the  best  authors  on 
the  subject,  endeavor  to  show  how,  after  the 
wild  turkey  was  found  in  America  by  different 
navigators  and  explorers,  it  was  brought,  from 
time  to  time,  to  several  of  the  countries  of  the  Old 
World  —  chiefly  Spain  and  Great  Britain  —  from 
whence  it  probably  was  taken,  upon  different 
occasions,  into  other  countries  of  the  continent. 

Wild  turkeys  have  always  been  easy  to  cap- 
ture, and  we  are  aware  of  the  fact  that  they  are 
quite  capable  of  crossing  the  Atlantic  on  ship- 
board in  comfort  and  safety,  landing  in  as  good 
a  condition  —  if  properly  cared  for  during  the 
voyage  —  as  when  they  left  America.  Josselyn 
(1672)  in  his  New  England  Rarities  (p.  9)  has  not 
a  little  to  say  on  this  point. 

As  already  stated,  the  literature  and  bibli- 
ography of  the  turkey  is  quite  sufficient  to  fill  a 
good  many  volumes.  Nothing  of  imporance, 
however,  has  been  added  to  it,  gainsaying  what 
we  now  have  as  a  truthful  account  of  the  bird's 
introduction  into  Europe.  Indeed  Buffon  (Ois, 


50       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

II,  pp.  132-162),  Broderip  (Zoo/.  Recreat.  pp. 
120-137),  Pennant  (Arct.  Zool  pp.  291-300),  and 
others,  practically  cleared  up  nearly  all  the 
points  on  this  part  of  the  turkey's  history,  mak- 
ing but  a  few  statements  that  are  not  wholly 
reliable  and  worthy  of  acceptance.  Pennant 
very  properly  ignored  in  his  work  Barrington's 
essay  (Miscellanies,  pp.  127^151)  in  which  the 
latter  attempted  to  prove  that  turkeys  were 
known  before  America  was  discovered,  and  that 
they  were  shipped  over  there  subsequently  to 
its  discovery ! 

I  have  already  cited  above  Pennant's  article 
in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  London  (1781),  and  quoted  from  it  to 
some  extent.  It  is  one  of  the  standard  writings 
on  the  wild  turkey  invariably  referred  to  by 
all  authors  when  writing  on  the  history  of  that 
bird.  As  it  is  only  accessible  to  the  few,  and  so 
full  of  reliable  information,  I  propose  to  give 
here,  somewhat  in  full,  those  paragraphs  in  it 
having  special  reference  to  the  historical  side  of 
our  subject,  and  in  doing  so  I  retain  the  spelling 
and  composition  of  the  original  production. 


THE    TURKEY    HISTORIC  51 

"Belon,  ('Hist,  des  Oys.,'  248)  the  earliest  of 
those  writers,"  says  Pennant,  "who  are  of  the 
opinion  that  these  birds  were  natives  of  the  old 
world,  founds  his  notion  on  the  description  of 
the  Guinea-fowl,  the  Meleagrides  of  Strabo, 
Athenseus,  Pliny,  and  others  of  the  ancients. 
I  rest  the  refutation  on  the  excellent  account 
given  by  Athenseus,  taken  from  Clytus  Milesius, 
a  disciple  of  Aristotle,  which  can  suit  no  other 
than  that  fowl.  "  They  want,"  says  he,  "  natural 
affection  towards  their  young;  their  head  is 
naked,  and  on  the  top  is  a  hard  round  body  like 
a  peg  or  nail ;  from  their  cheeks  hangs  a  red  piece 
of  flesh  like  a  beard.  It  has  no  wattles  like  the 
common  poultry.  The  feathers  are  black,  spot- 
ted with  white.  They  have  no  spurs;  and  both 
sexes  are  so  alike  as  not  to  be  distinguished  by  the 
sight."  Varro  (Lib.  III.  c.9.)  and  Pliny  (Lib.  X. 
c.  26)  take  notice  of  the  spotted  plumage  and 
the  gibbous  substance  on  the  head.  Athenaeus 
is  more  minute,  and  contradicts  every  character 
of  the  Turkey,  whose  females  are  remarkable  for 
their  natural  affection,  and  differ  materially  in 
form  from  the  males,  whose  heads  are  destitute 


52       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

of  the  callous  substance,  and  whose  heels  (in  the 
males)  are  armed  with  spurs." 

"Aldrovandus,  who  died  in  1605,  draws  his 
arguments  from  the  same  source  as  Belon;  I  there- 
fore pass  him  by,  and  take  notice  of  the  greatest 
of  our  naturalists  Gesner  (Av.  481.),  who  falls  into 
a  mistake  of  another  kind,  and  wishes  the  Turkey 
to  be  thought  a  native  of  India.  He  quotes 
^Elian  for  that  purpose,  who  tells  us,  'That  in 
India  are  very  large  poultry  not  with  combs,  but 
with  various  coloured  crests  interwoven  like 
flowers,  with  broad  tails  either  bending  or  dis- 
played in  a  circular  form,  which  they  draw  along 
the  ground  as  peacocks  do  when  they  do  not 
erect  them ;  and  that  the  feathers  are  partly  of  a 
gold  colour,  partly  blue,  and  of  an  emerald  col- 
our.' (De  Anim.  lib.  XVI.  c,  2.). 

"This  in  all  probability  was  the  same  bird  with 
the  Peacock  Pheasant  of  Mr.  Edwards,  Le  Baron 
de  Tibet  of  M.  Brisson,  and  the  Pavo  bicalcaratus 
of  Linnaeus.  I  have  seen  this  bird  living.  It 
has  a  crest,  but  not  so  conspicuous  as  that  de- 
scribed by  ^Elian;  but  it  has  not  those  striking 
colours  in  form  of  eyes,  neither  does  it  erect  its 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  53 

tail  like  the  Peacock  (Edw.  II.  67.),  but  trails  it 
like  the  Pheasant.  The  Catreus  of  Strabo  (Lib. 
XV.  p.  1046)  seems  to  be  the  same  bird.  He 
describes  it  as  uncommonly  beautiful  and  spot- 
ted, and  very  like  a  Peacock.  The  former  au- 
thor (De  Anim.  lib.  XVII,  c.  23.)  gives  more 
minute  account  of  this  species,  and  under  the 
same  name.  He  borrows  it  from  Clitarchus, 
an  attendant  of  Alexander  the  Great  in  all  his 
conquests.  It  is  evident  from  his  description 
that  it  was  of  this  kind;  and  it  is  likewise  prob- 
able that  it  was  the  same  with  his  large  Indian 
poultry  before  cited.  He  celebrates  it  also  for 
its  fine  note;  but  allowance  must  be  made  for  the 
credulity  of  Julian. 

"The  Catreus,  or  Peacock  Pheasant,  is  a  native 
of  Tibet,  and  in  all  probability  of  the  north  of 
India,  where  Clitarchus  might  have  observed  it; 
for  the  march  of  Alexander  was  through  that 
part  which  borders  on  Tibet,  and  is  now  known 
by  the  name  of  Penj-ab  or  five  rivers." 

"I  shall  now  collect  from  authors  the  several 
parts  of  the  world  where  Turkies  are  unknown 
in  the  state  of  nature.  Europe  has  no  share  in 


54        THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

the  question ;  it  being  generally  agreed  that  they 
are  exotic  in  respect  to  that  continent." 

"Neither  are  they  found  in  any  part  of  Asia 
Minor,  or  the  Asiatic  Turkey,  notwithstanding 
ignorance  of  their  true  origin  first  caused  them 
to  be  named  from  that  empire.  About  Aleppo, 
capital  of  Syria,  they  are  only  met  with,  do- 
mesticated like  other  poultry.  (Russel,  63). 
In  Armenia  they  are  unknown,  as  well  as  in 
Persia;  having  been  brought  from  Venice  by 
some  Armenian  merchants  into  that  empire 
(Ta vernier,  145),  where  they  are  still  so  scarce 
as  to  be  preserved  among  other  rare  fowls  in  the 
royal  menagery"  (Bell's Travels,  1. 128). 

"Du  Halde  acquaints  us  that  they  are  not 
natives  of  China;  but  were  introduced  there 
from  other  countries.  He  errs  from  misin- 
formation in  saying  that  they  are  common  in 
India." 

"  I  will  not  quote  Gemelli  Careri,  to  prove  that 
they  are  not  found  in  the  Philippine  Islands, 
because  that  gentleman  with  his  pen  traveled 
round  the  world  in  his  easy  chair,  during  a  very 
long  indisposition  and  confinement,  (Sir  James 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  55 

Porter's  Obs.  Turkey,  I,  1,  321),  in  his  native 
country." 

"But  Dampier  bears  witness  that  none  are 
found  in  Mindanao  "  (Barbot  in  Churchill's  Coll., 
V.S9). 

"The  hot  climate  of  Africa  barely  suffers  these 
birds  to  exist  in  that  vast  continent,  except  under 
the  care  of  mankind.  Very  few  are  found  in 
Guinea,  except  in  the  hands  of  the  Europeans, 
the  negroes  declining  to  breed  any  on  account  of 
the  great  heats  (Bosnian,  229) .  Prosper  Alpinus 
satisfies  us  they  are  not  found  either  in  Nubia  or 
in  Egypt.  He  describes  the  Meleagrides  of  the 
ancients,  and  only  proves  that  the  Guinea  hens 
were  brought  out  of  Nubia,  and  sold  at  a  great 
price  at  Cairo  (Hist.  Nat.  ^Egypti.  I,  201); 
but  is  totally  silent  about  the  turkey  of  the 
moderns." 

"Let  me  in  this  place  observe  that  the  Guinea 
hens  have  long  been  imported  into  Britain. 
They  were  cultivated  in  our  farm-yards;  for  I 
discover  in  1277,  in  the  Grainge  of  Clifton,  in  the 
parish  of  Ambrosden  in  Buckinghamshire,  among 
other  articles,  six  Mutilones  and  six  Africans 


56       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

fcemince  (Kennett's  Parochial  Antiq.  287),  for 
this  fowl  was  familiarly  known  by  the  names  of 
Afra  Avis  and  Gallina  Africana  and  Numida. 
It  was  introduced  into  Italy  from  Africa,  and 
from  Rome  into  our  country.  They  were  neg- 
lected here  by  reason  of  their  tenderness  and 
difficulty  of  rearing.  We  do  not  find  them  in 
the  bills  of  fare  of  our  ancient  feasts  (neither  in 
that  of  George  Nevil  nor  among  the  delicacies 
mentioned  in  the  Northumberland  household 
book  begun  in  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII) ;  neither  do  we  find  the  turkey ;  which  last 
argument  amounts  almost  to  a  certainty,  that 
such  a  hardy  and  princely  bird  had  not  found 
its  way  to  us.  The  other  likewise  was  then 
known  by  its  classical  name;  for  that  judicious 
writer  Doctor  Caius  describes  in  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  Guinea-fowl,  for  the 
benefit  of  his  friend  Gesner,  under  the  name  of 
Meleagris,  bestowed  on  it  by  Aristotle"  (CAII 
Opusc.  13.  Hist.  An.,  lib.  VI.  c.  2). 

"Having  denied,  on  the  very  best  authorities, 
that  the  Turkey  ever  existed  as  a  native  of  the  old 
world,  I  must  now  bring  my  proofs  of  its  being 


THE    TURKEY    HISTORIC  57 

only  a  native  of  the  new,  and  of  the  period  in 
which  it  first  made  its  appearance  in  Europe." 

"The  next  who  speaks  of  them  as  natives  of 
the  mainland  of  the  warmer  parts  of  America  is 
Francusco  Fernandez,  sent  there  by  Philip  II, 
to  whom  he  was  physician.  This  naturalist  ob- 
served them  in  Mexico.  We  find  by  him  that 
the  name  of  the  male  was  Huexolotl,  of  the  fe- 
male Cihuatotolin.  He  gives  them  the  title  of 
Gallus  Indicus  and  Gallo  Pavo.  The  Indians, 
as  well  as  the  Spaniards,  domesticated  these 
useful  birds.  He  speaks  of  the  size  by  compari- 
son, saying  that  the  wild  were  twice  the  magni- 
tude of  the  tame;  and  that  they  were  shot  with 
arrows  or  guns  (Hist.  Av.  Nov.  Hisp.  27).  I 
cannot  learn  the  time  when  Fernandez  wrote. 
It  must  be  between  the  years  1555  and  1598,  the 
period  of  Philip's  reign." 

"Pedro  de  Ciesa  mentions  Turkies  on  the 
Isthmus  of  Darien  (Seventeen  Years  Travels, 
20).  Lery,  a  Portugese  author,  asserts  that 
they  are  found  in  Brazil,  and  gives  them  an 
Indian  name  (In  De  Laet's  Descr.  des  Indes, 
491);  but  since  I  can  discover  no  traces  of  them 


58       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

in  that  diligent  and  excellent  naturalist  Marc- 
grave,  who  resided  long  in  that  country,  I  must 
deny  my  assent.  But  the  former  is  confirmed 
by  that  able  and  honest  navigator  Dampier, 
who  saw  them  frequently,  as  well  wild  as  tame, 
in  the  province  of  Yucatan  (Voyages,  Vol  II, 
part  II,  pp.  65,  85,  114),  now  reckoned  part 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Mexico." 

"In  North  America  they  were  observed  by  the 
very  first  discoverers.  When  Rene  de  Landon- 
niere,  patronized  by  Admiral  Coligni,  attempted 
to  form  a  settlement  near  where  Charlestown 
now  stands,  he  met  with  them  on  his  first 
landing  in  1564,  and  by  his  historian  has  repre- 
sented them  with  great  fidelity  in  the  fifth  plate 
of  the  recital  of  his  voyage  (Debry) :  from  his 
time  the  witnesses  to  their  being  natives  of  the 
continent  are  innumerable.  They  have  been 
seen  in  flocks  of  hundreds  in  all  parts  from 
Louisiana  even  to  Canada;  but  at  this  time  are 
extremely  rare  in  a  wild  state,  except  in  the  more 
distant  parts,  where  they  are  still  found  in  vast 
abundance." 

"It  was  from  Mexico  or  Yucatan  that  they 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  59 

were  first  introduced  into  Europe;  for  it  is  certain 
that  they  were  imported  into  England  as  early 
as  the  year  1524,  the  15th  of  Henry  VIII.  (Ba- 
ker's Chr.  Anderson's  Diet.,  Com.  1,  354.  Hack- 
luyt,  II,  165,  makes  their  introduction  about  the 
year  1532.  Barnaby  Googe,  one  of  our  early 
writers  on  Husbandry,  says  they  were  not  seen 
here  before  1530.  He  highly  commends  a  Lady 
Hales  of  Kent  for  her  excellent  management  of 
these  fowl,  p.  166.) 

"  We  probably  received  them  from  Spain,  with 
which  we  had  great  intercourse  till  about  that 
time.  They  were  most  successfully  cultivated 
in  our  Kingdom  from  that  period;  insomuch 
that  they  grew  common  in  every  farm-yard, 
and  became  even  a  dish  in  our  rural  feasts  by 
the  year  1585;  for  we  may  certainly  depend  on 
the  word  of  old  Tusser  in  his  Account  of  the 
Christmas  Husbandrie  Fare. "  (Five  Hundred 
Points  of  good  Husbandrie,  p.  57.) 

"Beefe,  Mutton,  and  Porke,  shredpiece 

of  the  best, 

Pig,   Veale,    Goose,   and   Capon,   and 
Turkic  well  drest, 


60       THE   WILD   TURKEY  AND   ITS   HUNTING 

Cheese,  Apples  and  Nuts,  jolie 

carols  to  heare, 

As  then  in  the  countrie,  is  counted 
good  cheare." 

"But  at  this  very  time  they  were  so  rare  in 
France,  that  we  are  told,  that  the  very  first  which 
was  eaten  in  that  Kingdom  appeared  at  the 
nuptial  feast  of  Charles  IX.  in  1570  (Anderson 's 
Diet.  Com.  1,  410)."1 

A  little  later  on  Bartram  in  his  travels  in  the 
South  published  some  notes  on  the  wild  turkey 
[now  M .  g.  osceola]  as  he  found  them  in  Florida 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  original  edition  of  his  book,  which  I  have  not 
seen,  appeared  in  1791.  I  have,  however,  ex- 
amined the  edition  of  1793,  wherein  on  page  14 
he  says:  "Our  turkey  of  America  is  a  very 
different  species  from  the  Meleagris  of  Asia 

Pennant's  article  is  illustrated  by  a  folding  plate  giving  the  leg  of  a 
turkey  bearing  a  supernumery  toe  situated  in  front  of  the  tibiotarsus 
with  the  claw  above.  The  note  in  reference  to  it  is  here  reproduced  in 
order  to  complete  the  article.  Philos.  Trans.,  Vol.  LXXI,  Ab.  Ill, 
p.  80: 

"  To  this  account  I  beg  leave  to  lay  before  you  the  very  extraordinary 
appearance  on  the  thigh  of  a  turkey  bred  in  my  poultry  yard,  and  which 
was  killed  a  few  years  ago  for  the  table.  The  servant  in  plucking  it  was 
very  unexpectedly  wounded  in  the  hand.  On  examination  the  cause 
appeared  so  singular  that  the  bird  was  brought  to  me.  I  discovered 
that  from  the  thigh-bone  issued  a  short  upright  process,  and  to  that  grew 
a  large  and  strong  toe,  with  a  sharp  and  crooked  claw,  exactly  resembling 
that  of  a  rapacious  bird." 


zs'.a 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  61 

and  Europe;  they  are  nearly  thrice  their  size 
and  weight.  I  have  seen  several  that  have 
weighed  between  twenty  and  thirty  pounds, 
and  some  have  been  killed  that  have  weighed 
near  forty." 

And  further  on  in  the  same  work  he  adds 
[Florida,  p.  81] :  "Having  rested  very  well  during 
the  night,  I  was  awakened  in  the  morning  early 
by  the  cheering  converse  of  the  wild  turkey- 
cocks  (Meleagris  occidentalis)  saluting  each 
other  from  the  sun-brightened  tops  of  the  lofty 
Cupressus  disticha  and  Magnolia  grandiflora. 
They  begin  at  early  dawn  and  continue  till  sun- 
rise, from  March  to  the  last  of  April.  The  high 
forests  ring  with  the  noise,  like  the  crowing  of 
the  domestic  cock,  of  these  social  sentinels;  the 
watchword  being  caught  and  repeated,  from 
one  to  another,  for  hundreds  of  miles  around, 
insomuch  that  the  whole  country  is  for  an  hour 
or  more  in  a  universal  shout.  A  little  after 
sunrise,  their  crowing  gradually  ceases,  they 
quit  then  their  high  lodging  places,  and  alight 
on  the  earth,  where,  expanding  their  silver-bor- 
dered train,  they  strut  and  dance  round  about 


62       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

the  coy  female,  while  the  deep  forests  seem  to 
tremble  with  their  shrill  noise."1 

Another  of  the  early  writers  (1806),  who  paid 
some  attention  to  the  history  and  distribution  of 
the  wild  turkeys  was  Barton.  I  find  the  following 
having  reference  to  some  of  his  observations,  viz. : 
"A  memoir  has  been  read  before  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  in  which  the  author  has 
shown  that  at  least  two  distinct  species  of  Mele- 
agris,  or  turkey,  are  known  within  the  limits  of 
North  America.  These  are  the  Meleagris  gallo- 
pavo,  or  Common  Domesticated  Turkey,  which 
was  wholly  unknown  in  the  countries  of  the  Old 
World  before  the  discovery  of  America ;  and  the 
Common  Wild  Turkey  of  the  United  States,  to 
which  the  author  of  the  memoir  has  given  the  name 
Meleagris  Palawa — one  of  its  Indian  names. 

'Bartram,  William.  Travels  through  North  and  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  East  and  West  Florida,  the  Cherokee  Country,  the  Extensive 
Territories  of  the  Muscogalges  or  Creek  Confederacy,  and  the  Country 
of  the  Choctaws.  Containing  an  account  of  the  soil  and  Natural  Pro- 
ductions of  those  regions;  together  with  observations  on  the  manners  of 
the  Indians.  Embellished  with  Copper  Plates. 

The  original  edition  of  Bartram  is  cited  in  the  Third  Instalment  oj 
American  Ornithological  Bibliography  by  Elliott  Coues  (the  references 
being  pp.  83  and  290  bis).  Bull.  U.  S.  Geol.  and  Geogr.  Surv.  Terr. 
1879,  p.  810,  Govm't  Printing  Office.  It  is  here  in  this  work  of  his  that 
Bartram  designates  the  domestic  turkey  as  Meleagris  gallopavo,  Linn.; 
and  the  wild  turkey  of  this  country  (M.  occidentaiis)  (p.  83)  as  M. 
americanus  (p.  290  bis). 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  63 

"The  same  author  has  rendered  it  very  prob- 
able that  this  latter  species  was  domesticated 
by  some  of  the  Indian  tribes  living  within  the 
present  limits  of  the  United  States,  before  these 
tribes  had  been  visited  by  the  Europeans.  It 
is  certain,  however,  that  the  turkey  was  not  do- 
mesticated by  the  generality  of  the  tribes,  within 
the  limits  just  mentioned,  until  after  the  Euro- 
peans had  taken  possession  of  the  countries  of 
North  America."1 

Nine  or  ten  years  after  Barton  wrote,  De  Witt 
Clinton,  who  was  a  candidate  for  President  of 
the  United  States  in  1812,  and  a  son  of  James 
Clinton,  was  one  of  the  writers  of  that  time  on 
the  wild  turkey.  He  pointed  out  how  birds, 
the  turkey  included,  change  their  plumage  after 
domestication,  and,  after  giving  what  he  knew 
of  the  introduction  of  the  turkey  into  Spain  from 
America  and  the  West  Indies,  he  adds:  "From 
the  Spanish  turkey,  which  was  thus  spread  over 


'Barton,  P.  S.  The  Philadelphia  Medical  and  Physical  Journal,  Vol. 
II,  1806,  pp.  162-164.  Coues,  in  his  Ornitho.  Biblio.,  cited  above,  omits 
the  words,  "The  Philadelphia,"  which  gives  trouble  to  find  the  work  in  a 
library;  he  also  has  the  year  wrong,  giving  1805  for  1806  —  the  latter 
being  correct.  The  copy  I  consulted  had  no  PI.  1,  with  the  article, 
that  I  happened  to  see. 


64       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

Europe,  we  have  obtained  our  domestic  one. 
The  wild  turkey  has  been  frequently  tamed,  and 
his  offspring  is  of  a  large  size."  (p.  126.) l 

Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  Clinton's 
article  appeared,  the  anatomy  of  the  wild  turkey 
began  to  attract  some  attention.  Among  the 
first  articles  to  appear  on  this  part  of  the  sub- 
ject was  one  by  the  late  Sir  Richard  Owen,  who, 
apparently  taking  the  similarity  of  the  vernac- 
ular names  into  account,  made  anatomical 
comparisons  of  the  organs  of  smell  in  the  tur- 
key and  the  turkey  buzzard.  Naturally,  he 
found  them  very  different,  —  quite  as  different, 
perhaps,  as  are  the  olfactory  organs  of  an  owl 
and  an  ostrich,  which  I,  for  one,  would  not  under- 
take to  make  a  comparison  of  for  publication, 
simply  for  the  fact  that  in  both  these  birds  their 
vernacular  name  begins  with  the  letter  o.2 

Even  twenty  years  after  this  paper  appeared 
there  were  those  who  still  entertained  doubts 
as  to  the  origin  of  the  domesticated  turkeys,  and 
believed  that  they  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 

'Clinton,  De  Witt.  Trans.  Lit.  and  Philos.  Soc.,  New  York,  1, 1815, 
pp.  21-184.  Note  S.  pp.  125-128. 

'Owen,  R.  P.  Z.  S.     V.  1837,  pp.  34,  35. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  65 

wild  forms.  Among  the  doubters,  no  one  was 
more  prominent  than  Le  Conte,  who  published 
the  following  as  his  opinion  at  the  time,  stating : 
"The  conviction  that  these  two  birds  were  really 
distinct  species  has  long  existed  in  my  mind. 
More  than  fifty  years  ago,  when  I  first  saw  a 
Wild  Turkey,  I  was  led  to  conclude  that  one 
never  could  have  been  produced  from  the  other." 
[Bases  it  on  differences  of  external  characters] 
(p.  179),  adding  toward  the  close  of  his  article: 
"  I  defy  any  one  to  show  a  Turkey ,  even  of  the  first 
generation,  produced  from  a  pair  hatched  from  the 
eggs  of  a  wild  hen,"  etc.  "I  repeat,  contrary  to 
the  assertions  of  many  others,  that  no  one  has 
ever  succeeded  in  domesticating  our  Wild  Tur- 
key," etc.  "Thoroughly  believe  that  the  tame 
and  wild  bird  are  different  species,  and  the  latter 
not  the  ancestor  of  the  tame  one."  (p.  181. )l 

'Le  Conte,  John.  Proc.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci,  of  Phila.  IX,  1857,  pp. 
179-181.  The  distinctive  characters  and  the  habits,  as  given  by  this 
luthor  of  the  wild  and  domesticated  turkeys  of  the  United  States,  are 
doubtless  of  some  value;  but  the  deductions  he  draws  from  the  com- 
parisons made  are,  as  we  know,  quite  erroneous.  I  have  not  examined 
the  article  by  E.  Roger  in  the  Bull.  Soc.  Acclim.  cited  by  Coues  in  his 
Ornitho.  Biblio.  as  having  appeared  in  the  "2c  Ser.  VII,  1870,  pp.  264- 
266."  Either  the  year  or  the  pagination,  or  both,  of  the  citation  is 
wrong,  and  as  many  of  the  copies  were  out  at  the  time  of  my  search, 
and  the  others  distributed  through  several  libraries,  I  failed  to  obtain 
it.  R.  W.  S. 


66       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

During  the  year  1856,  the  papers  Gould  pub- 
lished on  the  wild  turkeys  attracted  considerable 
attention,  and  they  have  been  widely  quoted 
since.  In  one  of  his  first  papers  on  the  subject 
he  quotes  from  Martin  the  same  paragraph  which 
Baird  quoted  in  his  article  in  the  Report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Agriculture  (1866  antea),  while 
Baird  in  his  article  misquotes  Gould  by  saying 
that  the  turkey  was  introduced  into  England  in 
1541;  whereas  Gould  states  the  introduction 
took  place  in  1524. 1 

'Gould,  J.  2.  On  a  new  turkey,  Meleagris  Mexicana.  P.  Z.  S. 
XXIV,  1856,  pp.  61-63.  (In  his  Ornithol.  Bibliogr.)  Coues  remarks 
upon  this  as  follows :  "  Subsequently  determined  to  be  the  stock  whence 
the  domestic  bird  descended,  and  hence  a  synonym  of  M.  gallopavo, 
Linn." 

This  paper  was  extensively  republished  at  the  time,  generally  under 
the  title  of  "A  new  species  of  turkey  from  Mexico"  [all  citing  the  P.  Z. 
S.  article].  One  journal  quoted  it  as  follows:  " Mr.  Gould  exhibited  a 
specimen  of  turkey  which  he  had  obtained  in  Mexico,  and  which  dif- 
fered materially  from  the  wild  turkey  of  the  United  States.  At  the 
same  time  this  turkey  so  closely  resembled  the  domesticated  turkey  of 
Europe  that  he  believed  naturalists  were  wrong  in  attributing  its  origin 
to  the  United  States  species.  The  present  specimen  was  therefore  a  new 
species,  and  he  proposed  to  call  it  Meleagris  Mexicana,  which,  if  his 
theory  was  correct,  must  henceforth  be  the  designation  of  the  common 
turkey."  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  XXII,  1856,  p.  139.  Under  the  same  title 
this  latter  was  reprinted  in  Edinb.  New  Philos.  Journ.  n.  s.,  iv,  1856, 
pp.  371,  372.  See  also  Bryant,  H.  "Remarks  on  the  supposed  new  species 
of  turkey,  Meleagris  Mexicana,  recently  described  by  Mr.  Gould."  Proc. 
Bost.  Soc.  Nat.  Hist,  vi,  1857,  pp.  158,159.  "In  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Zoological  Society  of  London  for  1856,  page  61,"  says  Professor  Baird, 
"Mr.  Gould  characterizes  as  new  a  wild  turkey  from  the  mines  of  Real 
del  Norte,  in  Mexico,  under  the  name  of  Meleagris  Mexicana,  and  is  the 
first  to  suggest  that  it  is  derived  from  the  domesticated  bird,  and  not 
from  the  common  wild  turkey  of  eastern  North  America,  on  which  he 


THE    TURKEY   HISTORIC  67 

Before  passing  to  the  more  recent  literature  on 
these  birds,  and  what  I  will  have  to  say  further 
on  about  their  comparative  osteology  and  their 
eggs,  it  will  be  as  well  to  reproduce  here  a  few  more 
statements  made  by  Bennett,  whose  work,  "The 
Gardens  and  Menagerie  of  the  Zoological 
Society  Delineated,"  I  have  already  quoted.1 

retains  the  name  of  M .  gallopavo,  of  Linnaeus.  He  stated  that  the 
peculiarities  of  the  new  species  consist  chiefly  in  the  creamy  white  tips 
of  the  tail  feathers  and  of  the  upper  tail  coverts,  with  some  other  points 
of  minor  importance.  I  suggest  that  the  wild  turkey  of  New  Mexico, 
as  referred  to  by  various  writers,  belongs  to  this  new  species,  and  not  to 
the  M.  gallopavo."  (loc.  cit.  p.  289.)  Compare  the  above  with  what 
Professor  Baird  states  in  the  series  of  the  Pacif.  Railroad  Reports,  vol., 
ix,  p.  618,  with  the  remainder  of  the  above  quoted  article,  which  is  too 
long  to  reproduce  here. 

'Bennett,  E.  T.  "Publ.  with  the  sanction  of  the  council  under  the 
superintendence  of  the  Secretary  and  Vice  Secretary  of  the  Society. 
Birds.  Vol.  II.  London,  1835,  pp.  209-224."  There  is  a  very  excel- 
lent wood -cut  of  a  turkey  illustrating  this  article  (left  lateral  view),  of 
which  the  author  says:  "Our  own  figure  is  taken  from  a  young  male,  in 
imperfect  plumage,  brought  from  America  by  Mr.  Audubon.  Another 
specimen,  in  very  brilliant  plumage,  but  perhaps  not  purely  wild,  forms 
a  part  of  the  Society's  Museum"  (p.  223).  Bennett  derived  most  of  his 
information  about  the  habits  of  the  wild  turkey  in  nature  "from  an  excel- 
lent memoir  by  M.  Charles  Lucien  Bonaparte,  in  his  continuation  of 
Wilson's  American  Ornithology." 

"In  that  work  M.  Bonaparte  claims  credit  for  having  given  the  first 
representation  of  the  wild  turkey;1  and  justly  so,  for  the  figures  intro- 
duced into  a  landscape  in  the  account  of  De  Laudonniere's  Voyage  to 
Florida  in  De  Bry's  Collection,  and  that  published  by  Bricknell  in  his 
Natural  History  of  North  Carolina,  cannot  with  certainty  be  referred 
to  the  native  bird.  They  are  besides  too  imperfect  to  be  considered  as 
characteristic  representations  of  the  species.  Much  about  the  same 
time  with  M.  Bonaparte's  figure  appeared  another,  in  M.  Viellot's  Gal- 
erie  des  Oiseaux,  taken  from  a  specimen  in  the  Paris  Museum. 

lNewton  disputes  this  and  says:  "In  1555  both  sexes  were  characteristically 
figured  by  Belon  (Oiseaux,  p.  248),  as  was  the  cock  by  Gesner  in  the  same  year, 
and  these  are  the  earliest  representations  of  the  bird  known  to  exist."  (Diet, 
of  Birds,  pp.  995,  996.) 


68       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

Bennett  was  also  of  the  opinion  that  "Daines 
Barrington  was  the  last  writer  of  any  note  who 
denied  the  American  origin  of  the  turkey,  and  he 
seems  to  have  been  actuated  more  by  a  love  of 
paradox  than  by  any  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
his  theory.  Since  the  publication  of  his  Mis- 
cellanies, in  1781,  the  knowledge  that  has  been 
obtained  of  the  existence  of  large  flocks  of  tur- 
keys, perfectly  wild,  clothed  in  their  natural 
plumage,  and  displaying  their  native  habits, 
spread  over  a  large  portion  of  North  America, 
together  with  the  certainty  of  their  non-existence 
in  a  similar  state  in  any  other  part  of  the  globe, 
have  been  admitted  on  all  hands  to  be  decisive 
of  the  question."  (p.  210). 

I  have  already  cited  the  evidence  above  to 
prove  that  it  was  Oviedo  who  first  published  an 
accurate  description  of  the  wild  turkey,  —  his 
work  being  published  at  Toledo  in  about  the 
year  1526,  at  which  time  the  turkey  had  already 

"It  is  somewhat  singular  that  so  noble  a  bird,  and  in  America  at  least 
by  no  means  a  rare  one,  should  have  remained  unfigured  until  within  five 
years  of  the  present  time;  all  the  plates  in  European  works  being  mani- 
festly derived  from  domestic  specimens."  Bennett  was  aware  that 
Audubon's  Plates  were  published  about  this  time,  for  he  mentions  them. 
He  also  was  well  informed  in  matters  regarding  the  crossing  of  the  wild 
male  turkey  with  the  female  domestic  one,  and  with  the  improvement 
in  the  breed  thus  obtained. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  69 

become  domesticated.  In  other  words,  it  was 
the  Spaniards  who  first  reduced  the  bird  to  a 
state  of  domestication,  and  very  soon  thereafter 
it  was  introduced  into  England.  Spain  and  Eng- 
land were  the  great  maritime  nations  of  those 
times,  and  this  fact  will  amply  account  for  the 
early  introduction  of  the  bird  into  the  latter 
country.  Singularly  enough,  however,  we  have 
no  account  of  any  kind  whatever  through  which 
we  can  trace  the  exact  time  when  this  took  place. 
As  others  have  suggested,  it  is  just  possible  that 
it  may  have  been  Cabot,  the  explorer  of  the  then 
recently  discovered  coasts  of  America,  who  first 
transported  wild  turkeys  into  England.  Baker 
quotes  the  popular  rhyme  in  his  Chronicle: 

"Turkeys,  carps,  hoppes,  picarel  and  beer, 
Came  into  England  all  in  one  year," 

that  is,  about  1524,  or  the  15th  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.1 

What  was  said  by  the  German  author  Heres- 
bach  was  translated  by  a  writer  on  agricultural 

'Newton  states  that  this  assertion  "is  wholly  untrustworthy,"  as 
carp,  pickerel  (and  other  commodities)  both  lived  in  this  country 
(England)  long  before  1524,  "if  indeed  they  were  not  indigenous  to  it." 
(Diet,  of  Birds,  p.  995). 


70       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

subjects,  Barnaby  Googe,  who  published  it  in  his 
work.  This  appeared  in  the  year  1614,  and  he 
refers  to  "those  outlandish  birds  called  Ginny- 
Cocks  and  Turkey-Cocks,"  stating  that  "before 
the  yeare  of  our  Lord  1530  they  were  not  scene 
with  us!" 

Further,  Bennett  points  out  that  "A  more 
positive  authority  is  Hakluyt,  who  in  certain 
instructions  given  by  him  to  a  friend  at  Con- 
stantinople, bearing  date  of  1582,  mentions, 
among  other  valuable  things  introduced  into 
England  from  foreign  parts,  'Turkey-Cocks  and 
hennes'  as  having  been  brought  in  "about  fifty 
years  past."  We  may  therefore  fairly  conclude 
that  they  became  known  in  this  country  about 
the  year  1530.1 

Guinea-fowls  were  extremely  rare  in  England 
throughout  the  sixteenth  century,  while  tame 
turkeys  became  very  abundant  there,  forming 
by  no  means  an  expensive  dish  at  festivals,  — 
the  first  were  obtained  from  the  Levant,  while 
the  latter  were  to  be  found  in  poultry  yards 

'No  two  authors  seem  to  agree  upon  the  exact  date  when  the  turkey 
was  really  introduced  into  England.  Here  Bennett  states  positively 
15SO;  Professor  Baird  has  it  1541;  Alfred  Newton  1524,  and  so  on. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  71 

nearly  everywhere.  In  one  of  the  Constitutions 
of  Archbishop  Cranmer  it  was  ordered  that  of 
fowls  as  large  as  swans,  cranes,  and  turkey- 
cocks,  "there  should  be  but  one  in  a  dish."1 

When  in  1555  the  serjeants-at-law  were 
created,  they  provided  for  their  inauguration 
dinner  two  turkeys  and  four  turkey  chicks  at  a 
cost  each  of  only  four  shillings,  swans  and  cranes 
being  ten,  and  half  a  crown  each  for  capons.  At 
this  rate,  turkeys  could  not  have  been  so  very 
scarce  in  those  parts.2  "Indeed  they  had  be- 
come so  plentiful  in  1573,"  continues  Bennett, 
"that  honest  Tusser,  in  his  'Five  Hundred 
Points  of  Good  Husbandrie,'"  enumerates  them 
among  the  usual  Christmas  fare  at  a  farmer's 
table,  and  speaks  of  them  as  "  ill  neighbors  "  both 
to  "peason  "  and  to  hops.  (pp.  212,  213.) 

"A  Frenchman  named  Pierre  Gilles  has  the 
credit  of  having  first  described  the  turkey  in  this 
quarter  of  the  globe,  in  his  additions  to  a  Latin 
translation  of  Aelian,  published  by  him  in  1535. 
His  description  is  so  true  to  nature  as  to  have 

'Leland's  Collectanea,  (1541). 
*Dugdale,     "Origines  Juridiciales." 


72       THE   WILD   TURKEY  AND   ITS   HUNTING 

been  almost  wholly  relied  on  by  every  subsequent 
writer  down  to  Willoughby.  He  speaks  of  it  as 
a  bird  that  he  has  seen;  and  he  had  not  then  been 
further  from  his  native  country  than  Venice;  and 
states  it  to  have  been  brought  from  the  New 
World. 

"That  turkeys  were  known  in  France  at  this 
period  is  further  proved  by  a  passage  in  Cham- 
pier's  'Treatise  de  Re  Cibaria,'  published  in 
1560,  and  said  to  have  been  written  thirty  years 
before.  This  author  also  speaks  of  them  as  hav- 
ing been  brought  but  a  few  years  back  from  the 
newly  discovered  Indian  islands.  From  this 
time  forward  their  origin  seems  to  have  been 
entirely  forgotten,  and  for  the  next  two  centuries 
we  meet  with  little  else  in  the  writings  of  orni- 
thologists concerning  them  than  an  accumula- 
tion of  citations  from  the  ancients,  which  bear 
no  manner  of  relation  to  them.  In  the  year  1566 
a  present  of  twelve  turkeys  was  thought  not 
unworthy  of  being  offered  by  the  municipality 
of  Amiens  to  their  king,  at  whose  marriage,  in 
1570,  Anderson  states  in  his  History  of  Com- 
merce, but  we  know  not  on  what  authority, 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  73 

they  were  first  eaten  in  France.  Heresbach,  as 
we  have  seen,  asserts  that  they  were  introduced 
into  Germany  about  1530;  and  that  a  sumptu- 
ary law  made  at  Venice  in  1557,  quoted  by  Za- 
noni,  particularizes  the  tables  at  which  they  were 
permitted  to  be  served. 

"So  ungrateful  are  mankind  for  the  most  im- 
portant benefits  that  not  even  a  traditionary 
vestige  remains  of  the  men  by  whom,  or  the  coun- 
try from  whence,  this  most  useful  bird  was 
introduced  into  any  European  states.  Little 
therefore  is  gained  from  its  early  history  beyond 
the  mere  proof  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
process  of  domestication  may  sometimes  be  ef- 
fected." (pp.  213,  214.) 

Some  ten  or  more  years  ago,  at  a  time  when  I 
was  the  natural  history  editor  of  Shooting  and 
Fishing,  in  New  York  City,  I  published  a  number 
of  criticisms  and  original  articles  upon  turkeys, 
both  the  wild  and  domesticated  forms.1 


'Shufeldt,  R.  W.  "  The  Ancestry  of  the  American  Turkey,"  Shoot- 
ing and  Fishing,  Vol.  24,  No.  13,  New  York,  July  14,  1898,  p.  246. 
"Wild  and  Domesticated  Turkeys,"  Ibid,  No.  17,  August  11,  1898,  p. 
331.  "A  Reply  to  the  Turkey  Hunters,"  Ibid.  No.  23,  September  22, 
1898,  pp,  451,  452.  "The  Wild  Turkey  of  Arizona,"  Ibid.  Vol.  32, 
No.  5,  New  York,  May  22,  1902,  pp.  108,109. 


74       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

About  twelve  years  ago,  Mr.  Nelson  contrib- 
uted a  very  valuable  article  on  wild  turkeys, 
portions  of  which  are  eminently  worthy  of  the 
space  here  required  to  quote  them.1  He  says 
among  other  things  in  this  article  that  "All  recent 
ornithologists  have  considered  the  wild  turkey 
of  Mexico  and  the  southwestern  United  States 
(aside  from  M.  gallopavo  intermedia)  as  the 
ancestor  of  the  domesticated  bird.  This  idea 
is  certainly  erroneous,  as  is  shown  by  the  series  of 
specimens  now  in  the  collection  of  the  Biolog- 
ical Survey.  When  the  Spaniards  first  entered 
Mexico  they  landed  near  the  present  city  of 
Vera  Cruz  and  made  their  way  thence  to  the 
City  of  Mexico. 

"At  this  time  they  found  domesticated  turkeys 
among  the  Indians  of  that  region,  and  within  a 
few  years  the  birds  were  introduced  into  Spain.2 

1Nelson,  E.  W.  "Description  of  a  New  Subspecies  of  Meleagris 
gallopavo  and  proposed  changes  in  the  nomenclature  of  certain  North 
American  birds."  Auk,  XVII,  April  1900,  pp.  120-123. 

'Among  the  luxuries  belonging  to  the  high  condition  of  civilization 
exhibited  by  the  Mexican  nation  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest 
was  the  possession  of  Montezuma  by  one  of  the  most  extensive  zoological 
gardens  on  record,  numbering  nearly  all  the  animals  of  that  country,  with 
others  brought  at  much  expense  from  great  distances,  and  it  is  stated 
that  turkeys  were  supplied  as  food  in  large  numbers  daily  to  the  beasts 
of  prey  in  the  menagerie  of  the  Mexican  Emperor.  (Baird,  ibid  pp. 
288,  289.) 


PLATE  IV 


Fig.  12.  Superior  view  of  the  cranium  of  a  large  male  tame  turkey,  with  right 
nasal  bone  (n)  attached  in  situ.  Specimen  in  Dr.  Shufeldt's  private  collection. 
Fig.  13.  Left  lateral  view  of  the  skull  of  a  female  turkey,  probably  a  wild  one. 
No.  10684,  Coll.  U.  S.  National  Museum.  (See  Fig.  8,  PI.  II.)  c,  bony  entrance 
to  ear.  Compare  contour  line  of  cranium  with  Fig.  14.  Fig.  14.  Left  lateral 
view  of  the  cranium  of  a  tame  turkey;  male.  Dr.  Shufeldt's  private  collection. 
Fig.  15.  Direct  posterior  view  of  the  cranium  of  a  tame  turkey,  probably  a 
female,  pf,  postfrontal.  Specimen  in  Dr.  Shufeldt's  collection.  Fig.  1 6.  Skull  of  a 
wild  Florida  turkey,  seen  from  below  (AT.  g.  osceola).  (See  Fig.  10,  PI.  II.)  Bones 
named  in  Fig.  18.  Photo  natural  size  by  Dr.  Shufeldt  and  considerably  reduced. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  75 

"The  part  of  the  country  occupied  by  the 
Spanish  during  the  first  few  years  of  the  conquest 
in  which  wild  turkeys  occur  is  the  eastern  slope 
of  the  Cordillera  in  Vera  Cruz,  and  there  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  this  must  have  been  the 
original  home  of  the  birds  domesticated  by  the 
natives  of  that  region. 

"Gould's  description  of  the  type  of  M.  mexi- 
cana  is  not  sufficiently  detailed  to  determine  the 
exact  character  of  this  bird,  but  fortunately  the 
type  was  figured  in  Elliot's  "Birds  of  North 
America."  ...  In  addition  Gould's  type 
apparently  served  for  the  description  of  the  adult 
male  M.  gallopavo  in  the  'Catalogue  of  Birds 
Brit.  Mus.'  (xxii,  p.  387),  and  an  adult  female 
is  described  in  the  same  volume  from  Ciudad 
Ranch  Durango.  .  .  .  Thus  it  will  be- 
come necessary  to  treat  M .  gallopavo  and  M .  mexi- 
cana  as  at  least  subspecifically  distinct.  What- 
ever may  be  the  relationship  of  M.  mexicana  to  M. 
gallopavo,  the  M.  g.  merriami  is  easily  separable 
from  M.  g.  mexicana  of  the  Sierra  Madre  of  western 
Mexico,  from  Chihuahua  to  Colima.  Birds  from 
northern  Chihuahua  are  intermediate." 


76       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

In  this  article  Mr.  Nelson  names  M.  g.  mer- 
riami  and  gives  full  descriptions  of  the  adult 
male  and  female  in  winter  plumage. 

What  has  thus  far  been  presented  above  on  the 
first  discovery  of  the  American  wild  turkeys, 
their  natural  history  in  the  New  World,  their 
introduction  into  Spain,  England,  France,  and 
elsewhere,  is  practically  all  we  have  on  this  part 
of  our  subject  up  to  date.  What  I  have  given 
is  from  the  very  best  ornithological  and  other 
authorities.  Domesticated  turkeys  are  now 
found  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  world,  while  in 
only  a  very  few  instances  has  any  record  been 
kept  of  the  different  times  of  their  introduction. 
With  the  view  of  accumulating  such  data,  one 
would  have  to  search  the  histories  of  all  the 
countries  of  all  the  civilized  and  semi-civilized 
peoples  of  the  world,  which  would  be  the  labor  of 
almost  a  man's  entire  lifetime,  and  in  only  too 
many  instances  his  search  would  be  in  vain,  for 
the  several  records  of  the  times  of  introducing 
these  birds  were  not  made. 

Apart  from  the  description  of  the  wild  turkeys, 
there  is  still  a  very  large  literature  devoted  to  the 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  77 

domesticated  forms  of  turkeys  as  they  occur  in 
this  country  and  abroad,  as  well  as  descriptions 
of  their  eggs.  I  have  gone  over  a  large  part  of 
this  literature,  but  shall  be  able  to  use  only  a 
small,  though  nevertheless  essential,  part  of  it 
here.  This  I  shall  complete  with  an  account  of 
turkey  eggs,  which  will  be  presented  quite  apart 
from  anything  to  do  with  their  nests,  nesting 
habits,  and  much  else  which  will  be  fully  treated 
in  other  chapters  of  this  book.  In  some  works 
we  meet  with  the  literature  of  all  these  subjects 
together,  others  have  only  a  part,  while  still 
others  are  confined  to  one  thing,  as  the  eggs.1 
Darwin  in  his  works  paid  considerable  attention 
to  the  wild  and  tame  turkeys.  He  states  that 
"Professor  Baird  believes  (as  quoted  in  Teget- 
meier's  'Poultry  Book,'  1866,  p.  269)  that  our 
turkeys  are  descended  from  a  West  Indian  species, 
now  extinct.  But  besides  the  improbability  of  a 
bird  having  long  ago  become  extinct  in  these 
large  and  luxuriant  islands,  it  appears,  as  we 


'Ogilvie-Grant,  W.  R.  "A  Hand-book  to  the  Game-Birds." 
(Lloyd's  Nat.  Hist.,  London,  1897,  pp.  103-111.)  Genus  Meleagris.  De- 
scribes briefly  some  of  the  North  American  Turkeys,  and  also  M.  ocellata 
(full  page  colored  figure) .  Nest  and  eggs  of  all  described  in  brief. 


78       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

shall  presently  see,  that  the  turkey  degenerates 
in  India,  and  this  fact  indicates  that  this  was  not 
aboriginally  an  inhabitant  of  the  lowlands  of  the 
tropics. 

"F.  Michaux,"  he  further  points  out,  "sus- 
pected in  1802  that  the  common  domestic  turkey 
was  not  descended  from  the  United  States  species 
alone,  but  was  likewise  from  a  southern  form,  and 
hewentsofaras  to  believe  thatEnglish  and  French 
turkeys  differed  from  having  different  proportions 
of  the  blood  of  the  two  parent-forms.1 

"English  turkeys  are  smaller  than  either  wild 
form.  They  have  not  varied  in  any  great  de- 
gree; but  there  are  some  breeds  which  can  be 
distinguished  —  as  Norfolks,  Suffolks,  Whites, 
and  Copper-Coloured  (or  Cambridge),  all  of 
which,  if  precluded  from  crossing  with  other 
breeds,  propagate  their  kind  truly.  Of  these 
kinds,  the  most  distinct  is  the  small,  hardy,  dull- 
black  Norfolk  turkey,  of  which  the  chickens  are 
black,  with  occasionally  white  patches  about  the 

'Michaux,  F.  "Travels  in  N.  Amer."  1802  Eng.  Trans.,  p.  217. 
See  also  the  following:  Blyth,  E.,  "Ann.  and  Mag.  of  Nat.  Hist.,"  1847, 
vol.  xx.,  p  391.  This  author  points  out  that  these  turkeys  in  India  are 
flightless,  black  in  color,  small,  and  the  appendage  over  the  bill  of 
great  size. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  79 

head.  The  other  breeds  scarcely  differ  except 
in  colour,  and  their  chickens  are  generally  mot- 
tled all  over  with  brownish-grey.1 

"In  Holland  there  was  formerly,  according  to 
Temminick,  a  beautiful  buff-yellow  breed,  fur- 
nished with  an  ample  white  topknot.  Mr. 
Wilmot  has  described  a  white  turkey-cock  with 
a  crest  formed  of  'feathers  about  four  inches 
long,  with  bare  quills,  and  a  tuft  of  soft  down 
growing  at  the  end.'2  Many  of  the  young  birds 
whilst  young  inherited  this  kind  of  crest,  but 
afterwards  it  either  fell  off  or  was  pecked  out  by 
the  other  birds.  This  is  an  interesting  case,  as 
with  care  a  new  breed  might  probably  have  been 
formed ;  and  a  topknot  of  this  nature  would  have 
been,  to  a  certain  extent,  analogous  to  that  borne 
by  the  males  in  several  allied  genera,  such  as 
Euplocomus,  Lophophorus,  and  Pavo."z 

'Dixon,  E.  S.  "  Ornamental  Poultry,"  1848,  p.  34.  This  author  also 
noted  the  interesting  fact  that  the  female  of  the  domesticated  turkey 
sometimes  has  the  tuft  of  hair  on  her  breast  like  the  male.  Bechstein 
refers  to  the  old  German  fable  or  superstition  that  a  hen  turkey  lays  as 
many  eggs  as  the  gobbler  has  feathers  in  the  under  tail-coverts,  which, 
as  we  know,  vary  in  number.  (Naturgesch.  Deutschlands,  B  iii,  1793, 
s.  309.). 

'"Gardiner's  Chronicle,"  1852,  p.  699. 

'Darwin,  Charles.  "Animals  and  Plants  Under  Domestication," 
Vol.  1,  1868,  pp.  352-355.  Other  facts  of  this  character  are  set  forth 
here  which  are  of  interest  in  the  present  connection. 


80       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

Darwin  has  further  pointed  out  that  "The 
tuft  of  hair  on  the  breast  of  the  wild  turkey-cock 
cannot  be  of  any  use,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether 
it  can  be  ornamental  in  the  eyes  of  the  female 
birds;  indeed,  had  the  tuft  appeared  under  do- 
mestication, it  would  have  been  called  a  mon- 
strosity. 

"The  naked  skin  on  the  head  of  a  vulture  is 
generally  considered  as  a  direct  adaptation  for 
wallowing  in  putridity;  and  so  it  may  be,  or  it 
may  possibly  be  due  to  the  direct  action  of  putrid 
matter;  but  we  should  be  very  cautious  in  draw- 
ing any  such  inference,  when  we  see  that  the  skin 
on  the  head  of  the  clean-feeding  male  turkey  is 
likewise  naked."1 

Newton  has  pointed  out  that  the  topknotted 
turkeys  were  figured  by  Albin  in  1738,  and  that 
it  "has  been  suggested  with  some  appearance  of 
probability  that  the  Norfolk  breed  may  be  de- 
scended from  the  northern  form,  Meleagris  gal- 
lopavo  or  americana,  while  the  Cambridgeshire 
breed  may  spring  from  the  southern  form  the  M. 

lDarwin,  Charles.  "The  Origin  of  Species,"  1880,  pp.  70,  158. 
He  also  shows  that  the  young  of  wild  turkey  are  instinctively  wild. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  81 

mexicanaoi  Gould  (P.  Z.  S.  1856,  p.  61),  which 
indeed  it  very  much  resembles,  especially  in 
having  its  tail-coverts  and  quills  tipped  with 
white  or  light  ochreous  —  points  that  recent 
North  American  ornithologists  rely  upon  as  dis- 
tinctive of  this  form.  If  this  supposition  be 
true,  there  would  be  reason  to  believe  in  the 
double  introduction  of  the  bird  into  England  at 
least,  as  already  hinted,  but  positive  information 
is  almost  wholly  wanting."  (Ibid.,  p.  996.). 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  males  of  both 
the  wild  and  tame  forms  of  turkeys  frequently 
lack  spurs;1  and  Henshaw  has  pointed  out  that 
in  the  case  of  M.  g.  merriami  "A  few  of  the  gob- 
blers had  spurs;  in  one  instance  these  took  the 
form  of  a  blunt,  rounded  knob  half  an  inch  long. 
In  others,  however,  it  was  much  reduced,  and 
in  others  still  the  spur  was  wanting;  though  my 
impression  is  that  all  the  old  males  had  this  wea- 
pon."2 

One  of  the  best  articles  which  have  been  con- 
tributed to  the  present  part  of  our  subject,  ap- 

'Woodhouse,  Dr.     (Amer.  Nat.  vii,  1873,  p,  326.). 
'Henshaw,  H.  W.  Rept.  Geogr.  and  Geol.  Expl.  and  Surv.  West  of  the 
100th  meridian.     1875.     Chap.  III.  The  Ornith.  Coll.1871-1874,  p.  435. 


82       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

peared  several  years  ago  from  the  pen  of  that 
very  excellent  naturalist,  the  late  Judge  Caton  of 
Chicago.  This  contribution  is  rather  a  long  one, 
and  I  shall  only  select  such  paragraphs  from  it 
as  are  of  special  value  in  the  present  connection.1 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  author  of  this 
work  made  a  long  series  of  observations  on  wild 
turkeys  which  he  kept  in  confinement.  He 
raised  many  from  the  eggs  of  the  wild  turkey 
taken  in  nature  and  hatched  out  by  the  common 
hen  on  his  own  preserves.  At  one  time  he  had  as 
many  as  sixty  such  birds,  and  he  lost  no  oppor- 
tunity to  study  their  habits.  They  were  of  the 
pure  stock  with  all  their  characters  as  in  the  wild 
form.  These  turkeys  became  very  tame  when 
thus  raised  from  the  eggs  of  the  wild  birds,  and 
they  did  not  deteriorate,  either  in  size  or  in  their 
power  of  reproduction.  "This  magnificent 
game  bird,"  says  Caton,  "was  never  a  native  of 
the  Pacific  Coast.  I  have  at  various  times  sent 
in  all  about  forty  to  California,  in  the  hope  that 


'Caton,  J.  D.  "The  Wild  Turkey  and  Its  Domestication."  Amer. 
Nat.  xi,  No.  6,  1877,  pp.  321-330,  also  Ibid,  vii,  1873,  where  this  author 
states  that  "The  vision  of  the  wild  turkey  is  very  acute  but  the  sense  of 
smell  is  very  dull."  (p.  431.) 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  83 

it  may  be  acclimatized  in  the  forests.  Their 
numerous  enemies  have  thus  far  prevented  suc- 
cess in  this  direction,  but  they  have  done  reason- 
ably well  in  domestication,  and  Captain  Rodgers 
of  the  United  States  Coast  Survey  has  met  with 
remarkable  success  in  hybridizing  them  with  the 
domestic  bronze  turkey.  Last  spring  I  sent 
some  which  were  placed  on  Santa  Clara  Island, 
off  Santa  Barbara.  They  remained  contentedly 
about  the  ranch  building  and,  as  I  am  informed, 
raised  three  broods  of  young  which  are  doing 
well.  As  there  is  nothing  on  the  island  more 
dangerous  to  them  than  a  very  small  species  of 
fox,  we  may  well  hope  that  they  will  in  a  few 
years  stock  the  whole  island,  which  is  many 
miles  in  extent.  As  the  island  is  uninhabited 
except  by  the  shepherds  who  tend  the  immense 
flocks  of  sheep  there,  they  will  soon  revert  to  the 
wild  state,  when  I  have  no  doubt  they  will  re- 
sume markings  as  constant  as  is  observed  in  the 
wild  bird  here,  but  I  shall  be  disappointed  if  the 
changed  condition  of  life  does  not  produce  a 
change  of  color  or  in  the  shades  of  color,  which 
would  induce  one  unacquainted  with  their  his- 


84       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

tory  to  pronounce  them  specifically  different 
from  their  wild  ancestors  here.  Results  will  be 
watched  with  interest. 

"  My  experiments  in  crossing  the  wild  with  the 
tame  have  been  eminently  successful."  (Fol- 
lowed by  a  long  account,  p.  329.) 

"My  experiments  establish  first  that  the  tur- 
key may  be  domesticated,  and  that  each  suc- 
ceeding generation  bred  in  domestication  loses 
something  of  the  wild  disposition  of  its  ancestors. 

"Second,  that  the  wild  turkey  bred  in  do- 
mestication changes  its  form  and  the  color  of  its 
plumage  and  of  its  legs,  each  succeeding  genera- 
tion degenerating  more,  and  more  from  these 
brilliant  colors  which  are  so  constant  on  the  wild 
turkey  of  the  forest,  so  that  it  is  simply  a  question 
of  time  —  and  indeed  a  very  short  time  —  when 
they  will  lose  all  of  their  native  wildness  and  be- 
come clothed  in  all  the  varied  colors  of  the  com- 
mon domestic  turkey;  in  fact  be  like  our  domestic 
turkey,  —  yes,  be  our  domestic  turkey. 

"Third,  that  the  wild  turkey  and  the  domestic 
turkey  as  freely  interbred  as  either  does  with  its 
own  variety,  showing  not  the  least  sexual  aver- 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  85 

sion  always  observed  between  animals  of  different 
species  of  the  same  genus,  and  that  the  hybrid 
progeny  is  as  vigorous,  as  robust,  and  fertile  as 
was  either  parent. 

"It  must  be  already  apparent  that  I,  at  least, 
have  no  doubt  that  our  common  domestic  turkey 
is  a  direct  descendant  of  the  wild  turkey  of  our 
forests,  and  that  therefore  there  is  no  specific  dif- 
ference between  them.  If  such  marked  changes 
in  the  wild  turkey  occur  by  only  ten  years 
of  domestication,  all  directly  tending  to  the 
form,  habits,  and  colorings  of  the  domestic 
turkey,  —  in  all  things  which  distinguish  the  do- 
mestic from  the  wild  turkey,  —  what  might  we 
not  expect  from  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  of  do- 
mestication? I  know  that  the  best  ornitho- 
logical authority  at  the  present  time  declares 
them  to  be  of  a  different  species,  but  I  submit 
that  this  is  a  question  which  should  be  recon- 
sidered in  the  light  of  indisputable  facts  which 
were  not  admitted  or  established  at  the  time  such 
decision  was  made. 

"There  has  always  been  diffused  among  the 
domestic  turkeys  of  the  frontiers  more  or  less  of 


86       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

the  blood  of  the  wild  turkey  of  the  neighboring 
forests,  and  as  the  wild  turkey  has  been  driven 
back  by  the  settlement  of  the  country,  the  do- 
mestic turkey  has  gradually  lost  the  markings 
which  told  of  the  presence  of  the  wild;  though 
judicious  breeding  has  preserved  and  rendered 
more  or  less  constant  some  of  this  evidence  in 
what  is  called  the  domestic  bronze  turkey,  as  the 
red  leg  and  the  tawny  shade  dashed  upon  the 
white  terminals  of  the  tail  feathers  and  the  tail- 
coverts,  the  better  should  the  stock  be  considered, 
because  it  is  the  more  like  its  wild  ancestor. 

:'That  the  domestic  turkey  in  its  neighborhood 
may  be  descended  from  or  largely  interbred  with 
the  wild  turkey  of  New  Mexico,  which  in  its  wild 
state  more  resembles  the  common  domestic  tur- 
key than  our  wild  turkey  does,  may  unquestion- 
ably be  true,  and  it  may  be  also  that  the  wild 
turkey  there  has  a  large  infusion  of  the  tame 
blood,  for  it  is  known  that  not  only  our  domes- 
tic turkey,  but  even  our  barnyard  fowls,  relapse 
to  the  wild  state  in  a  single  generation  when 
they  are  reared  in  the  woods  and  entirely  away 
from  the  influence  of  man,  gradually  assuming 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  87 

uniform  and  constant  colorings.  But  I  will  not 
discuss  the  question  whether  the  Mexican  wild 
turkey  is  of  a  different  species  from  ours  or 
merely  a  variety  of  the  same  species,  only  with 
differences  in  color  which  have  arisen  from  ac- 
cidental causes,  and  certainly  I  will  not  question 
that  the  Mexican  turkey  is  the  parent  of  many 
domestic  turkeys,  but  I  cannot  resist  the  con- 
clusion that  our  wild  turkey  is  the  progenitor  of 
our  domestic  turkey." 

We  have  now  come  to  where  we  can  study  the 
eggs  of  these  birds,  and  in  the  same  article  I 
have  just  quoted  so  extensively  from,  Judge 
Caton  says  on  page  324  of  it,  "The  eggs  of  the 
wild  turkey  vary  much  in  coloring  and  somewhat 
in  form,  but  in  general  are  so  like  those  of  the 
tame  turkey  that  no  one  can  select  one  from  the 
other.  The  ground  color  is  white,  over  which 
are  scattered  reddish-brown  specks.  These  dif- 
fer in  shades  of  color,  but  much  more  in  numbers. 
I  have  seen  some  on  which  scarcely  any  specks 
could  be  detected,  while  others  were  profusely 
covered  with  specks,  all  laid  by  the  same  hen  in 
the  same  nest.  The  turkey  eggs  are  more  pointed 


88       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

than  those  of  the  goose  or  the  barnyard  fowl, 
and  are  much  smaller  in  proportion  to  the  size 
of  the  bird." 

This,  in  the  main,  is  a  fair  description  of  the 
eggs  of  Meleagris,  while  at  the  same  time  it  may 
be  said  that  the  ground  color  is  not  always 
"white,"  nor  the  markings  exactly  what  might 
be  denominated  "specks." 

Turkey  eggs  of  all  kinds,  laid  by  hens  of  the 
wild  as  well  as  by  those  of  the  domesticated 
birds,  have  been  described  and  figured  in  a  great 
many  popular  and  technically  scientific  books 
and  other  works,  in  this  country  as  well  as 
abroad.  A  large  part  of  this  literature  I  have 
examined,  but  I  soon  became  convinced  of  the 
fact  that  no  general  description  would  begin  to 
stand  for  the  different  kinds  of  eggs  that  turkeys 
lay.  They  not  only  differ  in  size,  form,  and  mark- 
ings, but  in  ground  colors,  numbers  to  the  clutch, 
and  some  other  particulars.  Then  it  is  true  that 
no  wild  turkey  hen,  of  any  of  the  known  sub- 
species or  species  of  this  country,  has  ever  laid  an 
egg  but  what  some  hen  of  the  domestic  breeds 
somewhere  has  not  laid  one  practically  exactly 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  89 

like  it  in  all  particulars.  In  other  words,  the  eggs 
of  our  various  breeds  of  tame  turkeys  are  like  the 
eggs  of  the  several  forms  of  the  wild  bird,  that  is, 
the  subspecies  known  to  science  in  the  United 
States  avifauna.  Therefore  I  have  not  thought 
it  necessary  to  present  here  any  descriptions  of 
the  eggs  of  the  tame  turkeys  or  reproductions  of 
photographs  of  the  same. 

Among  the  most  beautiful  of  the  wild  turkey 
eggs  published  are  those  which  appear  in  Major 
Bendire's  work.  They  were  drawn  and  painted 
by  Mr.  John  L.  Ridgway  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey.1  These  very  eggs  I  have  not 
only  examined,  studied  and  compared,  but, 
thanks  to  Dr.  Richmond  of  the  Division  of  Birds 
of  the  Museum,  and  to  Mr.  J.  H.  Riley,  his 
assistant,  I  had  such  specimens  as  I  needed 
loaned  me  from  the  general  collection  of  the  Mu- 
seum, in  that  I  might  photograph  them  for  use 
in  the  present  connection.  Dr.  Richmond  did 
me  a  special  kindness  in  selecting  for  my  study 
the  four  eggs  here  reproduced  from  my  photo- 

'Bendire,  Charles,  "Life  Histories  of  North  American  Birds  with 
Special  Reference  to  Their  Breeding  Habits  and  Eggs."  Washington, 
Govmt.  Printing  Office,  1892. 


90       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

graph  of  them  in  Plate  VI.  These  are  all  of  M. 
g.  silvestris. 

Of  these,  figures  20  and  21  are  from  the  same 
clutch,  and  doubtless  laid  by  the  same  bird. 
(Nos.  30014,  30014.)  They  were  collected  by 
J.  H.  Riley  at  Falls  Church,  Va.  Figure  20  is  an 
egg  measuring  66  mm.  x  45  mm.,  the  color  being 
a  pale  buffy-brown,  finely  and  nearly  evenly 
speckled  all  over  with  umber-brown,  with  very 
minute  specks  to  dots  measuring  a  millimetre  in 
diameter.  The  finest  speckling,  with  no  larger 
spots,  is  at  the  greater  end  (butt)  for  a  third  of 
the  egg. 

Figure  21  measures  63  mm.  x45  mm.,  the  ground 
color  being  a  pale  cream,  speckled  somewhat 
thickly  and  uniformly  all  over  with  fine  specks  of 
light  brown  and  lavender,  with  larger  spots  and 
ocellated  marks  of  lavender  moderately  abun- 
dant over  the  middle  and  the  apical  thirds,  with 
none  about  the  larger  end  or  remaining  third. 
Figure  22  (Plate  VI)  is  No.  31185  of  the  collection 
of  the  U.  S.  National  Museum  (ex  Ralph  Coll.) ;  it 
was  collected  at  Bridgeport,  Michigan,  by  Allan 
Herbert  (376,  4700,  '77)  and  measures  68  x  46. 


PLATE  VI 


Eggs  of  wild  turkey  (M.  g.  silvestris) 

Names  and  descriptions  given  in  the  text.  All  the  specimens  photo  natural  size  by 
Dr.  Shufeldt  and  somewhat  reduced  in  reproduction.  Fig.  20.  Upper  left-hand  one.  Fig. 
21.  Upper  right-hand  one.  Fig.  22.  Lower  left-hand  one.  Fig.  23.  Lower  right-hand  one. 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  91 

It  is  of  a  rather  deep  buffy -brown  or  ochre,  very 
thickly  and  quite  uniformly  speckled  all  over 
with  more  or  less  minute  specks  of  dark  brown. 

Figure  23  was  collected  by  H.  R.  Caldwell 
(91310),  the  locality  being  unrecorded  (Coll. 
U.  S.  Nat.  Museum,  No.  32407),  and  measures 
63  x  48.  It  is  of  a  pale  buffy -brown  or  pale  cafe 
au  lait  color,  quite  thickly  speckled  all  over  with 
fine  dots  and  specks  of  light  brown.  Some  few 
of  the  specks  are  of  noticeably  larger  size,  and 
these  are  confined  to  the  middle  and  apical 
thirds.  Speckling  of  the  butt  or  big  end  ex- 
tremely fine,  and  the  specks  of  lighter  color. 

Referring  to  the  wild  turkey  (M.  g.  silvestris) 
Bendire  says  (loc.  cit.,  p.  116):  "In  shape,  the 
eggs  of  the  Wild  Turkey  are  usually  ovate,  oc- 
casionally they  are  elongate  ovate.  The  ground 
color  varies  from  pale  creamy  white  to  creamy 
buff.  They  are  more  or  less  heavily  marked 
with  well-defined  spots  and  dots  of  pale  choco- 
late and  reddish  brown.  In  an  occasional  set 
these  spots  are  pale  lavender.  Generally  the 
markings  are  all  small,  ranging  in  size  from  a  No. 
6  shot  to  that  of  dust  shot,  but  an  exceptional 


92       THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

set  is  sometimes  heavily  covered  with  both  spots 
and  blotches  of  the  size  of  buckshot,  and  even 
larger.  The  majority  of  eggs  of  this  species  in 
the  U.  S.  National  Museum  collection,  and  such 
as  I  have  examined  elsewhere,  resemble  in  color- 
ation the  figured  type  of  M.  gallopavo  mexicanus, 
but  average,  as  a  rule,  somewhat  smaller  in  size. 

"The  average  measurement  of  thirty-eight 
eggs  in  the  U.  S.  National  Museum  collection  is 
61.5  by  46.5  millimetres.  The  largest  egg  meas- 
ures 68.5  by  46,  the  smallest  59  by  45  milli- 
metres." 

At  the  close  of  his  account  of  M.  g.  mexicanus 
Bendire  states  that  "The  only  eggs  of  this 
species  in  the  U.  S.  National  Museum  collection, 
about  whose  identity  there  can  be  no  possible 
doubt,  were  collected  on  Upper  Lynx  Creek, 
Arizona,  in  the  spring  of  1870,  by  Dr.  E.  Palmer, 
whose  name  is  well  known  as  one  of  the  pioneer 
naturalists  of  that  Territory. 

"The  eggs  are  ovate  in  shape,  their  ground 
color  is  creamy  white,  and  they  are  profusely 
dotted  with  fine  spots  of  reddish  brown,  pretty 
evenly  distributed  over  the  entire  egg.  The 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  93 

average  measurements  of  these  eggs  is  69  by  49 
millimetres.  The  largest  measures  70.5  by  49, 
the  smallest  67  by  48  millimetres. 

"The  type  specimen  (No.  15573, U.  S.  National 
Museum  collection,  PL  3,  Fig.  15)  is  one  of  the 
set  referred  to  above"  (loc.  cit.  p.  119). 

•This  set  of  three  eggs  I  have  personally  studied; 
they  are  of  M.  g.  merriami,  and  I  find  them  to 
agree  exactly  with  Captain  Bendire's  description 
just  quoted.1 

In  the  Ralph  Collection  (U.  S.  Nat.  Mus. 
No.  27232;  orig.  No.  10/6)  I  examined  six  (6) 
eggs  of  M .  g.  intermedia.  They  are  of  a  pale 
ground  color,  all  being  uniformly  speckled  over 
with  minute  dots  of  lightish  brown.  These  eggs 
are  rather  large  for  turkey  eggs.  They  were 
collected  at  Brownsville,  Texas,  May  26,  1894. 

Another  set  of  M.  g.  intermedia  collected  by 
F.  B.  Armstrong  (No.  25765,  coll.  U.  S.  Nat. 
Mus.)  are  practically  unspotted,  and  such  spots 
as  are  to  be  found  are  very  faint,  both  the  mi- 
nute and  the  somewhat  large  ones. 

'Some  of  the  English  books  contain  descriptions  of  the  eggs  of  our 
wild  turkeys,  as  for  example  "A  Handbook  to  the  Game-birds."  By 
W.  R.  Ogilvie-Grant.  (Lloyd's  Nat.  Hist.)  London,  1897,  pp.  103-111. 


94       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

In  Dr.  Ralph's  collection  (U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.  No. 
27080)  eggs  of  M .  g.  intermedia  are  short,  with  the 
large  and  fine  dots  of  a  pale  orange  yellow.  I  ex- 
amined a  number  of  eggs  and  sets  of  eggs  of  M. 
g.  osceola,  or  Florida  turkey.  In  No.  25787  the 
eggs  are  short  and  broad,  the  ground  color  being 
pale  whitish,  slightly  tinged  with  brown.  Some 
of  the  spots  on  these  eggs  are  unusually  large, 
in  a  few  places,  three  or  four  running  together, 
or  are  more  or  less  confluent;  others  are  isolated 
and  of  medium  size;  many  are  minute,  all  being 
of  an  earth  brown,  varying  in  shades.  In  the 
case  of  No.  25787  of  this  set,  the  dark-brown 
spots  are  more  or  less  of  a  size  and  fewer  in 
number;  while  one  of  them  (No.  25787)  is  exactly 
like  the  egg  of  Plate  VI,  Fig.  22;  finally,  there  is  a 
pale  one  (No.  25787)  wiihfine  spots,  few  in  num- 
ber in  middle  third,  very  numerous  at  the  ends. 
There  are  scattered  large  spots  of  a  dark  brown, 
the  surface  of  each  of  which  latter  are  raised  with 
a  kind  of  incrustation.  Another  egg  (No.  27869) 
in  the  same  tray  (M.  g.  osceola)  is  small,  pointed ; 
pale  ground  color  with  very  fine  spots  of  light 
brown  (coll.  W.  L.  Ralph).  Still  another  in 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  95 

this  set  (No.  27868)  is  markedly  roundish,  with 
minute  brown  speckling  uniformly  distributed. 
There  are  nine  (9)  eggs  in  this  clutch  (No.  27868), 
and  apart  from  the  differences  in  form,  they  all 
closely  resemble  each  other;  and  this  is  by  no 
means  always  the  case,  as  the  same  hen  may  lay 
any  of  the  various  styles  enumerated  above, 
either  as  belonging  to  the  same  clutch,  or  at  dif- 
ferent seasons. 

As  it  is  not  the  plan  of  the  author  of  the  present 
work  to  touch,  in  this  chapter,  upon  the  general 
habits  of  wild  turkeys — their  courtship,  their 
incubation,  the  young  at  various  stages,  nest- 
ing sites,  and  a  great  deal  more  having  to  do 
with  the  natural  history  of  the  family  and 
the  forms  contained  in  it  —  it  would  seem 
that  what  has  been  set  forth  above  in  regard 
to  the  eggs  of  the  several  subspecies  in  our 
avifauna  pretty  thoroughly  covers  this  part  of 
the  subject. 

Shortly  after  the  last  paragraph  was  com- 
pleted I  received  a  valuable  photograph  of  the 
nest  and  eggs  of  M.  g.  merriami,  and  this  I  desire 
to  publish  here  with  a  few  notes,  although  in  so 


96       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS  HUNTING 

doing  it  constitutes  a  departure  from  what  I 
have  just  stated  above  in  regard  to  the  nests  of 
Turkeys. 

This  photograph  was  kindly  furnished  me  by 
my  friend  Mr.  F.  Stephens  of  the  Society  of  Nat- 
ural History  of  San  Diego,  California,  with  per- 
mission to  use  it  in  the  present  connection.  It 
has  not  to  my  knowledge  been  published  before, 
though  the  existence  of  the  negative  from  which 
it  was  printed  has  been  made  known  to  ornitholo- 
gists by  Major  Bendire,  who  says,  in  his  account 
of  the  "Mexican  Turkey"  in  his  Life  Histories  of 
North  American  Birds  (loc.  cit.  p.  118):  "That 
well-known  ornithologist  and  collector,  Mr.  F. 
Stephens,  took  a  probably  incomplete  set  of 
nine  fresh  eggs  of  this  species,  on  June  15th,  1884. 
He  writes  me:  'I  was  encamped  about  five  miles 
south  of  Craterville,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Santa 
Rita  Mountains  in  Arizona;  the  nest  was  shown 
to  my  assistant  by  a  charcoal  burner.  On  his 
approach  to  it  the  bird  ran  off  or  flew  before  he 
got  within  good  range.  He  did  not  disturb  it 
but  came  to  camp,  and  in  the  afternoon  we  both 
went,  and  I  took  my  little  camera  along  and 


THE    TUKKEY   HISTOKIC  97 

photographed  it.  The  bird  did  not  show  up 
again.  The  locality  was  on  the  east  slope  of  the 
Santa  Rita  Mountains,  in  the  oak  timber,  just 
where  the  first  scattering  pines  commenced,  at 
an  altitude  of  perhaps  5000  feet.' 

"A  good  photograph,  kindly  sent  me  by  Mr. 
Stephens,  shows  the  nest  and  eggs  plainly.  It 
was  placed  close  to  the  trunk  of  an  oak  tree  on  a 
hillside,  near  which  a  good-size  yucca  grew, 
covering,  apparently,  a  part  of  the  nest;  the 
hollow  in  which  the  eggs  were  placed  was 
about  12  inches  across  and  3  inches  deep. 
Judging  from  the  photograph  the  nest  was 
fairly  well  lined." 

In  order  to  complete  my  share  of  the  work,  I 
will  now  add  here  a  few  paragraphs  and  illustra- 
tions upon  the  skeletal  differences  to  be  found 
upon  comparison  of  that  part  of  the  anatomy  of 
wild  and  domesticated  turkeys.  This  is  a  sub- 
ject I  wrote  upon  many  years  ago ;  what  I  then 
said  I  have  just  read  over,  and  I  find  I  can 
do  no  better  than  quote  the  part  contained  in 
the  "Analytical  Summary"  of  the  work.  It  is 
more  or  less  technical  and  therefore  must  be 


98       THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

brief,  though  it  is  none  the  less  necessary  to  com- 
plete the  subject  of  the  present  treatise.1 

1.  As  a  rule,  in  adult  specimens  of  M.  g.  mer- 
riami,  the  posterior  margins  of  the  nasal  bones 
indistinguishably  fuse  with  the  f rentals;  whereas, 
as  a  rule,  in  domesticated  turkeys  these  sutural 
traces  persist  with  great  distinctness  throughout 
life. 

2.  As  a  rule,  in  wild  turkeys  we  find  the  cran- 
iofrontal  region  more  concaved  and  wider  across 
than  it  is  in  the  tame  varieties. 

3.  The  parietal  prominences  are  apt  to  be 
more  evident  in  M.  g.  merriami  than  they  are  in 
the  vast  majority  of  domesticated  turkeys;  and 
the  median  longitudinal  line  measured  from  these 
to  the  nearest  point  of  the  occipital  ridge  is  longer 
in  the  tame  varieties  than  it  is  in  the  wild  birds. 
Generally  speaking,  this  latter  character  is  very 
striking  and  rarely  departed  from. 

4 .  The  figure  formed  by  the  line  which  bounds 


'Shufeldt,  R.  W.  "Osteology  of  Birds,"  Education  Dept.  Bull. 
No.  447,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  May  15,  1909.  N.  Y.  State  Mus.  Bull.  130. 
pp.  222-224;  based  upon  a  former  contribution  which  appeared  in  The 
Journal  of  Comparative  Medicine  and  Surgery,  July,  1887,  entitled  "A 
Critical  Comparison  of  a  Series  of  Skulls  of  the  Wild  and  Domesticated 
Turkeys."  (Meleagris  gallopavo  silvestris  and  M .  domestica.) 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  99 

the  occipital  area  is,  as  a  rule,  roughly  semi- 
circular in  a  domesticated  turkey,  whereas  in 
M.  g.  merriami  it  is  nearly  always  of  a  cordate 
outline,  with  the  apex  upward.  In  the  case  of 
the  tame  turkeys  I  have  found  it  to  average  one 
exception  to  this  in  every  twelve  birds;  in  the 
exception,  the  bounding  line  of  the  area  made  a 
cordate  figure  as  in  wild  turkeys. 

5.  Among  the  domesticated  turkeys,  the  in- 
terorbital  septum  almost  invariably  is  pierced 
by  a  large  irregular  vacuity;  as  a  rule  this  osseous 
plate  is  entire  in  wild  ones. 

6.  The   descending   process   of   a   lacrymal 
bone  is  more  apt  to  be  longer  in  a  wild  turkey 
than  in  a  tame  one;  and  for  the  average  the 
greater  length  is  always  in  favor  of  the  former 
species. 

7.  In  M .  g.  merriami  the  arch  of  the  superior 
margin  of  the  orbit  is  more  decided  than  it  is  in 
the  tame  turkey,  where  the  arc  formed  by  this 
line  is  shallowed,  and  not  so  elevated. 

8.  We  find,  as  a  rule,  that  the  pterygoid  bones 
are  rather  longer  and  more  slender  in  wild  tur- 
keys than  they  are  among  the  tame  ones. 


100     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

9.  At  the  occipital  region  of  the  skull,  the 
osseous  structures  are  denser  and  thicker  in  the 
tame  varieties  of  turkeys;  and,  as  a  whole,  the 
skull  is  smoother,  with  its  salient  apophyses  less 
pronounced  in  them  than  in  the  wild   types. 
There  is  a  certain  delicacy  and  lightness,  very 
difficult  to  describe,  that  stamps  the  skull  of  a 
wild  turkey,  and  at  once  distinguishes  it  from  any 
typical  skull  of  a  tame  one. 

10.  I  have  predicted  that  the  average  size  of 
the  brain  cavity  will  be  found  to  be  smaller  and 
of  less  capacity  in  a  tame  turkey  than  it  is  in  the 
wild  one.     In  the  case  of  this  class  of  domesti- 
cated birds,  as  pointed  out  above,  this  would 
seem  to  be  no  more  than  natural,  for  the  do- 
mestication of  the  turkey  has  not  been  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  develop  its  brain  mass  through  the 
influences  of  a  species  of  education ;  its  long  con- 
tact with  man  has  taught  it  nothing  —  quite 
the  contrary,  for  the  bird  has  been  almost  en- 
tirely relieved  from  the  responsibilities  of  using 
its  wits  to  obtain  its  food,  or  to  guard  against 
danger  to  itself.     These  factors  are  still  in  op- 
eration in  the  case  of  the  wild  types,  and  the 


THE   TURKEY   HISTORIC  101 

advance  of  civilization  has  tended  to  sharpen 
them. 

From  this  point  of  view,  then,  I  would  say  that 
mentally  the  average  wild  turkey  is  stronger 
than  the  average  domesticated  one,  and  I  believe 
it  will  be  found  that  in  all  these  long  years  the 
above  influences  have  affected  the  size  of  the 
brain-mass  of  the  latter  species  in  the  way  above 
indicated,  and  perhaps  it  may  be  possible  some 
day  to  appreciate  this  difference.  Perhaps,  too, 
there  may  have  been  also  a  slight  tendency  on 
the  part  of  the  brain  of  the  wild  turkey  to  in- 
crease in  size,  owing  to  the  demands  made  upon 
its  functions  due  to  the  influence  of  man 's  nearer 
approach,  and  the  necessity  of  greater  mental 
activity  in  consequence. 

Recently  I  examined  a  mounted  skeleton  of 
a  female  wild  turkey  in  the  collection  of  the 
United  States  National  Museum,  and  apart  from 
the  skull  it  presented  the  following  characters: 
There  were  fifteen  vertebrae,  the  last  one  having  a 
pair  of  free  ribs,  before  we  arrived  at  the  fused 
vertebrae  of  the  dorsum.  Of  these  latter  there 
were  three  coossified  into  one  piece. 


102     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

The  sixteenth  vertebra  supports  a  pair  of  free 
ribs  that  fail  to  meet  the  sternum,  there  being  no 
costal  ribs  for  them.  They  bear  uncinate  pro- 
cesses. 

Next  we  find  four  pairs  of  ribs  that  articulate 
with  hsemapophyses,  and  through  them  with  the 
sternum.  There  are  two  free  vertebrae  between 
the  consolidated  dorsal  ones  and  the  pelvis ;  and 
the  pelvis  bears  a  pair  of  free  ribs,  the  costal  ribs 
of  which  articulate  by  their  anterior  ends  with 
the  posterior  border  of  the  pair  of  costal  ribs  in 
front  of  them. 

A  kind  of  long  abutment  exists  at  the  middle 
point  on  each,  there  to  accommodate  the  articu- 
lation. There  are  six  free  tail  vertebrae  plus  a 
long  pointed  pygostyle.  The  os  furcula  is  rather 
slender,  being  of  a  typical  V-shaped  pattern, 
with  a  small  and  straight  hypocleidium.  With 
a  form  much  as  we  find  it  in  the  fowl,  the  pelvis 
is  characterized  by  not  having  the  ilia  meet  the 
sacral  crista  in  front.  The  prepubis  is  short  and 
stumpy.  The  external  pair  of  xiphoidal  pro- 
cesses of  the  sternum  are  peculiar  in  that  their 
posterior  ends  are  strongly  bifurcated. 


PLATE  VII 


Fig.  24.    Nest  of  a  wild  turkey  in  situ.      (M.  g.  merriami.)     Photo  by 
Mr.  F.  Stephens,  San  Diego,  California. 


THE    TURKEY   HISTORIC  103 

In  the  skeleton  of  the  manus,  the  pollex  meta- 
carpal  projects  forward  and  upward  as  a  rather 
conspicuous  process.  Its  phalanx  does  not  bear 
a  claw,  and  on  the  index  metacarpal  the  indicial 
process  is  present  and  overlaps  the  shaft  of  the 
next  metacarpal  behind  it.  In  the  leg  the  fibula 
is  free,  and  extends  halfway  down  the  tibiotarsal 
shaft. 

The  hypotarsus  of  the  tarso-metatarsus  is 
grooved  mesially  for  the  passage  of  tendons  be- 
hind, and  is  also  once  perforated  near  its  middle 
for  the  same  purpose.  As  I  have  already  stated, 
the  remainder  of  the  skeleton  of  this  bird  is  char- 
acteristically gallinaceous  and  need  not  detain  us 
longer  here.  I  would  add,  however,  that  the 
"tarsal  cartilages"  in  the  turkey  extensively 
ossify. 


CHAPTER  V 

BREAST    SPONGE SHREWDNESS 

NATURE  has  provided  the  old  gobbler 
with  a  very  useful  appendage.  Audubon 
calls  it  the  "  breast  sponge,"  and  it  covers 
the  entire  upper  part  of  the  breast  and  crop-cavity. 
This  curious  arrangement  consists  of  a  thick  mass 
of  cellular  tissue,  and  its  purpose  is  to  act  as  a 
reservoir  to  hold  surplus  oil  or  fat.  It  is  quite 
interesting  to  study  its  function,  and  it  is  a  very 
important  one  for  the  gobbler.  This  appendage 
is  not  found  on  the  hen  or  yearling  gobbler.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  gobbling  season,  about 
March  1st,  this  breast  sponge  is  full  of  rich,  sweet 
fat,  and  the  gobbler  is  plump  in  flesh ;  but  as  the 
season  advances  and  he  continues  to  gobble, 
strut,  and  worry  the  hens,  his  plumpness  is  re- 
duced, and  finally  the  bird  becomes  emaciated 
and  lean.  Often  during  the  whole  day  he  gob- 
bles and  struts  about,  making  love  to  the  hens, 

104 


BREAST    SPONGE — SHREWDNESS  105 

and  at  this  time  he  eats  almost  nothing,  being 
kept  alive  largely  by  drawing  on  his  reservoir  of 
fat.  As  the  gobbler  begins  to  grow  lean,  his 
flesh  becomes  rank  and  wholly  unfit  for  food,  and 
one  should  never  be  killed  at  this  time.  It  is  a 
fact  that  the  young  male  turkeys  gobble  but  sel- 
dom, if  at  all,  the  first  year.  Neither  do  these 
young  birds  possess  the  breast  sponge,  or  reser- 
voir to  hold  fat,  and  consequently  they  are  unfit 
to  mate  with  the  hens.  The  hens  visit  the  males 
every  day  or  alternate  days;  consequently,  if 
among  the  gobblers  there  are  no  mature  birds, 
the  eggs  laid  are  not  fertile.  I  wish  every  hunter, 
sportsman,  and  farmer  could  read  these  lines, 
and  recognize  the  importance  of  sparing  at  least 
one  of  the  adult  male  turkeys  in  each  locality. 
The  benefit  of  such  a  policy  would  soon  be  ap- 
parent in  the  increase  of  the  turkeys.  I  dwell 
at  length  on  this  point  in  order  to  make  clear  the 
necessity  of  sparing  some  old  gobblers  in  each 
section. 

It  has  frequently  been  stated  that  the  wild 
turkey  will  not  live  and  propagate  within  the 
haunts  of  man.  This  depends  upon  how  the 


106     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

birds  are  treated.  No  bird  or  animal  can  sur- 
vive eternal  persecution.  There  is  no  trouble 
about  the  birds  thriving  in  a  settled  community, 
if  the  proper  territory  is  set  apart  for  their 
use,  and  proper  protection  given.  The  territory 
should  consist  of  a  few  acres  of  woodland,  or  of 
some  broken  ground,  thicket,  or  swamp  to  afford 
a  little  cover.  In  such  a  retreat,  a  trio  of  wild 
turkeys  may  be  turned  loose,  and  in  a  few  years, 
if  properly  protected,  the  vicinity  would  be 
stocked  with  them. 

I  have  ample  evidence  that  wild  turkeys  will 
not  shrink  from  civilization.  It  is  the  trapping, 
snaring,  baiting,  and  killing  of  all  old  gobblers 
that  decimates  their  numbers,  not  the  legitimate 
hunting  by  sportsmen. 

The  shrewdness  of  the  turkey  is  shown  by  his 
having  no  fear  of  the  peaceable  farmer  at  the 
plow,  no  more  than  the  crow  or  the  blackbird 
has.  The  wild  turkey  will  go  into  the  open 
field  and  glean  food  from  the  stubble  or  upturned 
furrows  in  full  view  of  the  plowman.  This  I 
have  often  seen,  and  I  will  cite  one  incident  of 
this  kind,  which  came  under  my  observation 


BREAST    SPONGE  —  SHREWDNESS  107 

some  time  ago  when  hunting  in  the  State  of 
Mississippi.  It  was  a  clear,  beautiful  morning 
in  the  month  of  March.  Three  old  turkeys  were 
gobbling  in  different  directions,  along  a  creek 
in  a  swamp,  which  was  about  half  a  mile  wide, 
with  fields  on  each  side.  Having  selected  the 
one  I  thought  the  oldest  and  biggest,  I  ap- 
proached it  as  near  as  I  dared;  then,  hiding  my- 
self in  the  brush,  I  began  to  call.  In  a  short 
time  the  other  two  birds  quit  gobbling  and 
came  quickly  to  the  call,  while  the  one  I  had 
chosen  continued  his  gobbling,  but  in  the  same 
place  as  when  first  heard.  Suddenly  I  heard 
"Put-put"  directly  behind  me;  turning  my  head, 
I  saw,  within  twenty  paces  of  me,  a  fine  gobbler. 
"Put"  —  then  he  was  gone.  This  caused  the 
one  gobbling  in  front  of  me  to  become  suspicious. 
He  refused  to  come  an  inch  nearer,  and,  having 
heard  that  alarm,  "put,"  he  began  to  make  a 
detour  in  order  to  gain  a  certain  heavily 
wooded  ridge.  To  do  this,  without  getting  too 
near  the  spot  where  he  heard  the  warning  cry  of 
his  comrade,  he  had  to  go  over  a  high  rail  fence, 
going  through  a  part  of  the  field  just  plowed  up, 


108    THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS  HUNTING 

while  the  plowman  was  there  at  work  in  his 
shirt  sleeves,  not  over  one  hundred  yards  away 
and  in  full  view  of  the  gobbler.  The  man  was 
moving  all  the  time  and  frequently  holloaing  to 
his  mules,  "Whoa,"  "Gee,"  or  "Haw,"  in  such  a 
loud  voice  that  one  could  hear  him  a  long  dis- 
tance. The  turkey  would  gobble  every  time 
the  plowman  would  holloa.  He  appeared  to  be 
perfectly  fearless  of  the  plowman,  but  was  em- 
ploying all  his  sagacity  to  avoid  the  spot  where  I 
was.  I  could  not  understand  this  at  first,  but 
discovered  the  reason  a  little  later.  The  bird 
had  reached  the  field  and  was  flanking  me,  but  I 
could  not  see  it  on  account  of  the  undergrowth. 
I  rose,  and  by  making  a  detour  of  about  two 
hundred  yards  around  the  angle  of  the  field, 
keeping  well  in  the  woods,  I  finally  discovered 
the  gobbler  striding  sedately  across  the  field 
between  me  and  the  plowman,  who  was  busily 
engaged  in  attending  to  his  furrows,  still  loudly 
holloaing  from  time  to  time.  The  gobbler  at 
intervals  stopped,  strutted,  gobbled,  and  then 
proceeded  on  its  way.  Seeing  that  I  could  get 
no  nearer  to  him,  I  waited  until  he  was  about 


BREAST   SPONGE  —  SHREWDNESS  109 

to  cross  the  fence,  when  I  dropped  by  a  stump, 
lifted  my  rifle,  and  waited  for  him  to  mount  the 
fence.  This  he  was  some  time  in  doing,  but  I  fi- 
nally heard  the  flop,  flop,  when  his  fine  form  with 
long,  pendent  beard  was  seen  broadside  on  by  me 
on  the  top  rail,  about  eighty-five  yards  away.  In 
a  second  the  bead  of  my  rifle  covered  the  spot  at 
the  wing,  and,  as  I  fired,  the  bird  tumbled  dead 
into  the  field.  It  was  a  grand  old  specimen,  and 
on  examining  it  dry  blood  was  discovered  where 
a  buckshot  had  passed  through  its  leg.  There 
was  another  shot  across  the  rump,  and  a  third 
had  creased  the  back  of  the  neck  near  the  head. 
In  my  opinion,  the  bird  hearing  the  "put-put" 
of  the  gobbler  who  came  up  behind  me  suspected 
a  hidden  enemy,  and,  having  lately  been  wounded, 
thought  it  best  to  give  suspicious  places  a  wide 
berth. 

There  are  thousands  of  acres  in  the  South 
which  were  once  cultivated,  but  which  are  now 
abandoned  and  growing  up  with  timber,  brush, 
and  grass.  Such  country  affords  splendid  op- 
portunity for  the  rearing  and  perpetuation  of  the 
wild  turkey.  These  lands  are  vastly  superior  for 


110     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

this  purpose  than  are  the  solid  primeval  forests, 
inasmuch  as  they  afford  a  great  variety  of  sum- 
mer food,  such  as  green,  tender  herbage,  berries 
of  many  kind,  grasshoppers  by  the  million,  and 
other  insects  in  which  the  turkeys  delight.  Such 
a  country  also  affords  good  nesting  retreats,  with 
brier-patches  and  straw  where  the  nest  may 
be  safely  hidden,  and  where  the  young  birds  may 
secure  safe  hiding  places  from  animals  and  birds 
of  prey;  but  alas!  at  present  not  from  trappers, 
baiters,  and  pot  hunters.  Check  these,  and  the 
abandoned  plantations  of  the  South  would  soon 
be  alive  with  turkeys. 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOCIAL    RELATIONS  —  NESTING  —  THE     YOUNG 

BIRDS 

THE  wild  turkey  differs  in  its  domestic 
relations  from  the  majority  of  birds, 
for  it  does  not  take   one   partner   or 
companion,  or  pair  off  in  the  spring,  as  do  most 
gallinaceous  birds.     Charles  Hallock  has  stated 
that  turkeys  pair  off  in  the  spring.     I  beg  to 
differ  with  Mr.  Hallock.     The  male  turkey  does 
not  confine  himself  to  one  mate. 

He  is  a  veritable  Mormon  or  Turk,  polyga- 
mous in  the  extreme,  and  desires  above  all 
a  well-filled  harem.  He  cares  not  a  bit  for 
the  rearing  or  training  of  his  family;  in  fact,  it 
has  been  alleged  that  he  follows  his  mates  to 
their  nests  and  destroys  and  eats  the  eggs.  This 
I  do  not  believe,  nor  will  I  accuse  him  of  such 
conduct.  He  is  a  vain  bird  and  craves  admira- 
tion, and  acts  as  if  he  were  a  royal  prince  and  a 

in 


112     THE   WILD   TURKEY  AND   ITS   HUNTING 

genuine  dude,  and  he  will  have  admiration  though 
it  costs  him  his  life.  He  is  a  gay  Lothario  and  will 
covet  and  steal  his  neighbors'  wives  and  daugh- 
ters ;  and  if  his  neighbors  protest,  will  fight  to  the 
finish.  He  is  artful,  cunning,  and  sly,  at  the 
same  time  a  stupendous  fool.  One  day  no  art 
can  persuade  him  to  approach  you,  no  matter 
how  persuasively  or  persistently  you  call;  the 
next  day  he  will  walk  boldly  up  to  the  gun  at 
the  first  call  and  be  shot.  He  has  no  senti- 
ment beyond  a  dudish  and  pompous  admiration 
for  himself,  and  he  covets  every  hen  he  sees. 
He  will  stand  for  hours  in  a  small  sunny  place, 
striving  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  hens  by 
strutting,  gobbling,  blowing,  and  whining,  until 
he  nearly  starves  to  death.  I  believe  he  would 
almost  rather  be  dead  than  to  have  a  cloudy  day, 
when  he  is  deprived  of  seeing  the  sun  shining 
on  his  glossy  plumage;  and  if  it  rains,  he  is  the 
most  disconsolate  creature  on  the  face  of  the 
earth. 

The  methods  employed  by  the  wild  turkey 
hen  in  nesting  and  rearing  a  family  do  not  differ 
materially  from  those  of  the  tame  turkey.  The 


SOCIAL   RELATIONS NESTING  113 

nest  itself  is  a  simple  affair,  fashioned  as  if  made 
in  a  hurry,  and  consists  of  a  depression  scratched 
in  the  earth  to  fit  her  body  comfortably,  then  a  few 
dry  leaves  are  scratched  in  to  line  the  excavation. 
Again,  the  nest  may  be  under  an  old  fallen  tree- 
top  or  tussock  of  tall  grass,  or  beside  an  old  log, 
against  which  sundry  brush,  leaves,  and  grass 
have  drifted,  or  in  an  open  stubble  field  or 
prairie.  There  is  one  precaution  the  hen  never 
neglects,  however  slovenly  the  nest  is  built ;  this 
is  to  completely  cover  her  eggs  with  leaves  or 
grass  on  leaving  the  nest.  This  is  done  to  protect 
them  from  predaceous  beasts  and  birds,  partic- 
ularly from  that  ubiquitous  thief  and  villain, 
the  crow. 

The  eggs,  usually  from  eight  to  fifteen  in  num- 
ber, are  quite  pointed  at  one  end,  a  little  smaller 
than  the  eggs  of  the  domesticated  turkey,  show- 
ing considerable  variation  in  size  and  shape.  In 
color  they  are  uniform  cream,  sometimes  yellow- 
ish, and,  when  quite  fresh,  with  a  decided  pink 
cast,  spotted  and  blotched  all  over  with  reddish 
brown  and  sometimes  lilac. 

The  period  of  incubation  is  four  weeks.     On 


114     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

its  first  appearance  the  young  wild  turkey  is 
covered  with  a  suit  of  light  gray  fluffy  down, 
dotted  with  dusky  spots,  and  with  two  dusky 
stripes  from  the  top  of  the  head,  down  the  sides 
of  the  back  to  the  rump ;  but  this  is  soon  replaced 
by  a  covering  of  deciduous  feathers,  and  this 
in  turn  by  the  permanent  suit  at  molting  in 
August  and  September.  The  first  crop  of  feath- 
ers which  takes  the  place  of  the  down  grow  very 
rapidly,  assuming  in  their  maturity  the  precise 
shape  and  color  of  the  subsequent  and  perma- 
nent growth,  and  at  three  months  the  turkey  is 
in  appearance  the  same  as  one  of  nine  months. 
The  young  bird  of  two  or  three  pounds  weight 
has  the  same  outline  of  form  as  the  yearling,  but 
the  little  fellow  in  down  bears  a  striking  resem- 
blance to  a  young  ostrich.  The  deciduous 
feathers  mature  quickly,  and  the  quill-ends  dry 
before  the  young  bird  is  a  quarter  grown;  hence 
the  feathers  grow  no  more.  But  the  bird  grows 
until  molting-time  arrives,  when  the  young  fowl, 
if  a  gobbler,  will  weigh  from  seven  to  nine  pounds. 
The  molting  season  comes  on  apace,  and  the  bird 
is  out  of  humor;  for  its  clothes,  as  it  were,  do  not 


SOCIAL   RELATIONS  —  NESTING  115 

fit,  the  mosquitoes  and  ticks  bite  it,  and  the  de- 
ciduous quills  of  the  wings  begin  to  get  loose  and 
drop  out,  one  at  a  time  at  long  intervals,  so  that 
some  feathers  are  growing  while  others  are  falling. 
This  is  also  true  of  the  body  covering.  The 
tail  becomes  snaggled  and  awry,  and  at  the  time 
the  young  turkey  presents  any  thing  but  a  pleasing 
appearance.  The  molting  begins  in  August,  and 
it  is  the  last  of  December  before  the  full  second 
suit  of  feathers  is  completed.  It  is  the  irregular 
growth  of  the  feathers  that  often  deceives  the 
hunter  as  to  the  age  of  the  fowl.  Once  a  friend  of 
mine  and  I,  after  a  morning's  hunt,  stopped  to  rest 
and  got  into  our  boat.  He  had  three  fine  tur- 
keys, the  time  being  early  in  November,  and 
he  remarked  that  he  wished  he  had  killed  at  least 
one  gobbler  to  put  with  his  hens.  On  examina- 
tion I  showed  him  that  two  of  his  three  were 
young  gobblers  and  the  third  an  old  hen,  although 
the  birds  were  about  the  same  size  and  the  plu- 
mage almost  identical. 

The  tuft  or  beard  does  not  appear  on  the 
young  gobbler  even  in  the  Southern  climate  until 
late  in  October  or  November,  nor  have  I  known 


116     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

them  to  gobble  or  strut  at  this  early  age,  al- 
though the  tame  ones  sometimes  do.  The  gob- 
bler's beard  grows  quite  rapidly  until  the  end  of 
the  third  year,  and  then  slowly  until  eleven  or 
twelve  inches  long,  when  it  seems  to  stop.  It 
may  be  owing  to  its  wearing  off  at  the  lower  end 
by  dragging  on  the  ground  while  feeding;  but  a 
close  inspection  will  not  substantiate  this,  for  the 
hairs  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  beard  are  blunt 
and  rounding,  and  do  not  indicate  wear  from 
friction.  The  young  gobbler's  beard  is  two 
inches  long  by  the  end  of  November  of  the  first 
year  of  his  life.  By  March  it  is  three  inches  long 
and  stands  out  of  the  feathers  one  inch.  At  the 
end  of  the  second  year  is  it  five  inches  long,  and 
at  three  years  about  eight  inches  long. 

Hens  have  beards  only  in  rare  cases,  but  not 
in  one  out  of  a  hundred  will  a  hen  be  found  with 
one  and  then  never  more  than  four  inches 
long.  I  have  seen  gobblers  with  two  or  three 
beards,  and  one  at  Eagle  Lake,  Texas,  with  five 
separate,  long  and  distinct  beards;  but  such 
cases  are  freaks.  I  once  called  up  and  killed  a 
turkey  hen  on  the  banks  of  the  Trinity  River,  in 


Hen,  wild  turkey,  and  three  young.     On  account  of  the  extreme  shyness 
of  the  mother,  young  turkeys  are  very  hard  to  photograph 


SOCIAL   RELATIONS  —  NESTING  117 

Texas,  which  was  covered  with  precisely  the  same 
bronze  feathers  that  distinguish  the  gobbler  — 
the  same  thick,  velvety  black  satin  breast,  and 
the  same  beautifully  decorated  neck  and  head, 
except  the  white  turban  cap  of  the  gobbler.  She 
had  a  five-inch  beard  and  looked  in  every  way 
like  a  gobbler,  except  being  smaller  in  size.  She 
weighed  twelve  pounds  and  had  the  form  of  the 
hen,  the  legs  of  a  hen,  and  was  a  hen,  but  the 
most  gaudy  and  beautiful  specimen  I  ever  saw. 
Possibly  this  was  a  barren  hen,  as  she  had  all 
the  visible  characteristics  of  the  male,  but  she 
did  not  gobble,  she  yelped. 

The  parasite  which  troubles  the  turkey  is 
much  larger  than  those  which  infest  chickens. 
It  is  yellow  in  color  and  crawls  rapidly.  Tur- 
keys have  a  habit  of  rolling  themselves  in  dust 
and  ashes  to  remove  vermin  from  the  skin  and 
feathers;  but  I  believe  a  bath  of  dry  wood  ashes, 
where  an  old  log  or  stump  has  been  burned,  is 
preferred  by  them  on  account  of  the  cleansing 
effect  of  the  ashes. 

When  the  young  turkeys  are  four  or  five 
months  old  they  are  fairly  independent  of  their 


118     THE    WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

mother,  and  become  quite  self-reliant,  so  far  as 
roosting,  feeding,  and  flying  into  trees  is  con- 
cerned. They  are  not,  however,  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  their  mother 's  care  until  fully  grown, 
but  usually  the  entire  brood  remains  under  her 
guidance  more  or  less  until  December  or  Jan- 
uary. At  this  time  the  young  males  begin  to 
follow  the  ways  of  the  old  gobbler,  separating 
from  the  females  and  going  in  bands  by  them- 
selves; therefore  there  are  at  this  time  three 
classes  of  turkeys  socially  (if  I  may  use  the 
term)  in  the  same  district.  These  flocks  will 
incidentally  meet,  and  will  feed  and  scratch  to- 
gether for  an  hour  or  so ;  they  then  separate  into 
their  respective  classes  and  disappear  in  different 
directions  with  great  system  and  little  ado. 


CHAPTER  VII 

ASSOCIATION  OF  SEXES 

ONCE  I  saw  fifteen  gobblers  feeding  in 
a  hollow  between  two  ridges.  I  dis- 
mounted from  my  horse,  crawling  to 
the  brow  of  the  hill  in  order  that  I  might  peep 
over  and  have  a  good  look  at  them.  I  had 
no  gun  with  me  at  the  time,  so  I  lay  upon 
the  ground  and  watched  the  turkeys  feeding 
and  scratching  for  about  two  hours.  They  were 
apparently  all  of  one  flock;  but  finally  a  party 
of  nine,  all  of  which  were  old  gobblers,  having 
long  beards  that  trailed  upon  the  ground  as 
they  fed,  withdrew  in  one  direction,  while  the 
other  six,  which  were  young  or  yearling  gobblers 
and  beardless,  departed  in  another  direction. 
This  was  done  without  any  signal  that  I  could 
discern.  A  few  days  later,  as  I  was  passing  the 
same  place  with  my  rifle,  I  found,  right  on  the 
identical  spot,  the  same  fifteen  gobblers,  nine  old 

119 


120     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

ones  and  six  young  ones,  scratching  and  feeding 
as  before.  They  soon  began  to  feed  away  from 
me,  and  as  I  saw  they  were  to  pass  over  a  ridge, 
I  fired  at  the  nearest,  which  was  about  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty -five  yards  away,  tumbling  him 
over,  and  'the  rest  of  the  flock  ran  away.  Two 
weeks  after  this  incident  I  was  driving  in  the 
same  woods  for  deer.  The  hounds  flushed  one 
detachment  of  this  flock  of  turkeys  (the  nine  old 
gobblers),  which  took  refuge  in  the  trees;  and 
my  brother,  who  was  on  a  stand  near  where  they 
lit,  shot  two  of  the  turkeys  as  they  perched  in  the 
tall  pines  within  rifle  shot  of  him.  These  birds 
were  noble  fellows,  weighing  twenty-one  pounds 
each,  and  they  were  fat.  This  was  in  January. 

As  shown,  the  young  gobbler  will  occasionally 
associate  with  the  old  ones,  but  he  seldom  re- 
mains long  in  their  company.  Why  this  is 
so  I  do  not  know,  as  I  have  never  known 
them  to  quarrel,  jostle,  fight,  or  disagree  in 
any  way.  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  cause  of  the  separation  must  be  the  want 
of  congeniality  between  old  age  and  youth. 
This  division  and  separation  into  classes  em- 


ASSOCIATION    OF    SEXES 

braces  about  three  months,  December,  Janu- 
ary, and  February,  and  part  of  March.  The 
hens  are  more  sociable  and  gregarious  in  their 
ways  than  the  males,  collecting  in  immense 
flocks.  The  flocks  of  the  gobblers  are  seldom 
more  than  fifteen  or  twenty,  while  I  have  seen 
from  thirty  to  seventy -five  hens  in  a  single  flock 
in  which  there  was  not  a  single  male.  I  imagine 
the  greater  size  of  the  flocks  containing  females 
to  be  on  account  of  the  gobblers  being  killed 
in  far  greater  numbers  than  the  hens.  Just 
before  the  time  of  the  final  separation  of  the 
sexes,  the  young  males,  their  sisters,  their 
mothers,  and  other  old  hens  that  have  lost 
their  broods,  associate  in  a  very  sociable  manner, 
traveling  and  roosting  together.  Audubon  says : 
"The  turkey  is  irregularly  migratory,  as  well 
as  irregularly  gregarious.  In  relation  to  the 
first  of  these  circumstances,  I  have  to  state  that 
whenever  the  mast  in  one  part  of  the  country 
happens  to  exceed  that  of  another,  the  turkeys 
are  insensibly  led  to  that  spot  by  gradually 
meeting  in  their  haunts  with  more  fruit  the 
nearer  they  advance  toward  the  places  of  great- 


122     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

est  plenty.  In  this  manner  flock  follows  flock 
until  one  district  is  entirely  deserted  while 
another  is  overflowed  by  them,  but  as  these  mi- 
grations are  irregular,  and  extend  over  vast  ex- 
panse of  country,  it  is  necessary  that  I  should 
describe  the  manner  in  which  they  take  place. 
About  the  beginning  of  October,  when  scarcely 
any  seed  and  fruit  has  yet  fallen  from  the  trees, 
the  birds  assemble  in  flocks  and  gradually  move 
toward  the  rich  bottom  lands  of  the  Ohio  and 
the  Mississippi.  The  males,  or  as  they  are  com- 
monly called,  gobblers,  associate  in  parties  from 
ten  to  one  hundred,  and  search  for  food  apart 
from  the  females,  while  the  latter  are  singly  ad- 
vancing, each  with  its  brood  about  two  thirds 
grown,  or  in  connection  with  other  families, 
often  amounting  to  seventy  or  eighty  individuals 
all  intent  on  shunning  the  old  cocks,  which,  even 
when  the  young  brood  have  attained  this  size, 
will  fight  and  often  destroy  them  by  repeated 
blows  on  the  head."  This  last  assertion  of  the 
great  author  I  feel  obliged  to  criticise.  In  my 
vast  experience  with  the  turkey  I  have  never  met 
with  anything  to  justify  such  a  statement.  I 


ASSOCIATION   OF   SEXES  123 

have  never  seen  an  old  gobbler  attempt  to  fight  a 
young  one,  from  the  egg  to  maturity.  It  is 
wholly  unnatural  from  the  fact  that  the  old  birds 
are  never  in  a  bellicose  temper  except  during  the 
love  season  or  gobbling  time  in  the  spring,  when 
jealousies  arise  from  sexual  instincts.  Not  in 
any  instance,  however,  have  I  known  of  one 
turkey  killing  another.  I  have  often  seen  two  old 
gobblers  strut  up  to  each  other,  blow,  puff,  and 
rub  their  sides  together.  I  watched,  expecting  to 
see  a  crash,  but  there  was  not  a  motion  to  strike, 
and  this  was  in  the  love  season  while  there  was  a 
bevy  of  hens  all  around.  They  do  not  fight  in 
the  summer,  fall,  and  winter,  but  of  course  now 
and  then  old  gobblers  will  fight  in  the  beginning 
of  the  mating  season. 

The  young  broods  and  their  mothers  do  not 
associate  at  any  time  with  the  old  gobblers,  ex- 
cept as  I  have  described,  neither  do  they  run 
away  from  them  in  fear.  If  all  that  Audubon 
and  other  writers  say  about  the  wild  gobbler 
were  believed,  he  would  be  universally  regarded 
as  the  most  bellicose  and  brutal  villain  in  the 
bird  World ;  for,  according  to  various  writers,  he 


124     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

spends  the  greater  part  of  his  time  making  war  on 
his  own  kind,  besides  murdering  his  tender  off- 
spring. Certainly  there  is  no  bird  more  affec- 
tionate to  its  female  under  the  same  condition, 
or  more  gallant  and  proud  of  her  company,  and 
it  does  not  seem  likely  that  he  would  wilfully 
destroy  in  cold  blood  his  own  family. 

The  old  hens  that  have  not  succeeded  in  rais- 
ing a  brood  of  their  own  will  join  hens  who  have, 
and  assist  in  rearing  the  young.  Again,  Audu- 
bon  says:  "When  they  come  upon  a  river  they 
partake  themselves  to  the  highest  eminence,  and 
there  often  remain  a  day  or  two  as  if  in  consulta- 
tion. During  this  time  the  males  are  heard  gob- 
bling, calling,  and  making  much  ado,  and  are 
seen  strutting  about  as  if  to  raise  the  courage  to  a 
pitch  before  the  emergency  of  crossing." 

I  will  say  in  this  connection  that  turkeys  may  so 
act  in  rare  instances,  if  the  stream  be  exception- 
ally wide,  thus  delaying  their  progress  for  an  hour ; 
for  turkeys  do  not  like  to  fly  under  any  condi- 
tions, nor  will  they  use  their  wings  save  when 
necessary.  But  I  have  never  seen  a  river  that 
they  could  not  easily  cross,  starting  at  the 


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ASSOCIATION   OF   SEXES  125 

water's  edge,  rising  as  they  fly,  and  alighting 
in  the  tops  of  the  trees  on  the  opposite  bank. 
Mr.  J.  K.  Renaud,  of  New  Orleans,  and  I,  while 
paddling  a  skiff  up  a  small  lake  in  Alabama,  once 
counted  a  flock  of  sixteen  turkeys  flying  across 
the  lake  some  distance  ahead  of  us.  We  noticed 
that  they  just  barely  skimmed  over  the  water 
and  rose  to  the  top  of  a  higher  ridge  on  the  oppo- 
site side,  where  they  alighted,  and  not  even  one 
touched  the  water.  This  lake  was  probably  three 
hundred  yards  wide. 

Audubon  says:  "Even  the  females  and  young 
assume  something  of  the  pompous  demeanor, 
spreading  their  tails  and  running  around  each 
other,  purring  loudly,  and  making  extravagant 
leaps.  I  have  seen  this  running  round,  purring, 
dancing,  and  'ring-around  a  rosy'  in  the  spring, 
but  not  to  any  extent  at  any  other  time." 

As  many  of  my  readers  have  never  had  the 
opportunity  or  pleasure  of  reading  the  beautiful 
and  expressive  lines  of  Audubon  on  the  wild 
turkey,  I  will  be  pardoned  if  I  introduce  some 
extracts  from  this  great  author.  He  says:  "As 
early  as  the  middle  of  February  they  [the  tur- 


126     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

keys]  begin  to  experience  the  impulse  of  prop- 
agation. The  females  separate  and  fly  from 
the  males.  The  latter  strenuously  pursue  and 
begin  to  gobble,  or  utter  the  notes  of  exultation. 
The  sexes  roost  apart,  but  at  no  great  distance 
from  each  other.  When  a  female  utters  a  call- 
note,  all  the  gobblers  within  hearing  return  the 
sound,  rolling  note  after  note  with  as  much 
rapidity  as  if  they  intended  to  emit  the  last  and 
first  together,  not  with  the  spread  tails  as  when 
fluttering  round  the  hens  on  the  ground,  or  prac- 
tising on  the  branches  of  trees  on  which  they 
have  roosted  for  the  night,  but  much  in  the 
manner  of  the  domestic  turkey  when  an  unusual 
noise  elicits  its  singular  hubbub." 

By  this  he  means,  when  the  wild  gobbler  on  the 
roost  hears  the  call  of  the  hen,  he  gobbles,  and 
dances  on  the  limb  without  strutting,  the  same 
as  the  tame  gobbler  will  gobble  when  hearing  a 
shrill  whistle  or  other  sudden  acute  sound,  with- 
out evincing  any  amorous  feelings;  but  it  is  not 
always  so.  I  have  often  seen  the  wild  gobbler 
strut  on  his  roost,  and  I  have  shot  them  in  such 
an  act  when  in  full  round  strut. 


ASSOCIATION    OF   SEXES  127 

Audubon  also  says:  "If  the  call  of  the  hen  is 
from  the  ground,  all  the  males  immediately  fly 
toward  the  spot,  and  the  moment  they  reach 
it,  whether  the  hen  be  in  sight  or  not,  spread  out 
and  erect  their  tails,  draw  the  head  back  on  the 
shoulders,  depress  the  wings  with  a  quivering 
motion,  and  strut  pompously  about,  emitting 
at  the  same  time  successions  of  puffs  from  their 
lungs,  stopping  now  and  then  to  listen  and  look, 
but  whether  they  spy  females  or  not,  continue 
to  puff  and  strut,  moving  with  as  much  celerity 
as  their  ideas  of  ceremony  seem  to  admit." 

Now,  here  are  some  of  the  greatest  errors  of 
the  great  naturalist  in  all  his  turkey  lore,  or  else 
the  wild  turkey  gobbler  has  materially  changed 
his  ways.  The  gobblers  do  not  immediately  fly 
to  the  call  of  the  hen,  and  no  turkey  hunter  of 
experience  will  admit  this. 

There  are  perhaps  instances,  extremely  rare 
ones  though,  when  a  gobbler  will  fly  instantly 
to  a  hen  on  hearing  her  call,  or  even  at  sight  of 
her.  Only  in  two  instances  in  my  life  have  I 
witnessed  it,  and  on  both  occasions  the  gobblers 
were  young  birds  two  years  old,  and  acted  a  good 


128     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

deal  like  a  schoolboy  with  his  first  sweetheart  — 
who  smiles  and  laughs  at  everything  she  says 
and  does.  With  the  young  turkey  it  may  be  his 
first  gobble  on  hearing  the  quaver  of  the  hen. 
He  is  made  crazy,  and  may  unceremoniously 
rush  to  any  sound  that  in  the  least  resembles  the 
cry  of  the  hen,  without  a  thought  of  what  he  is 
about  or  of  the  possible  consequences.  This  is 
generally  the  kind  of  gobbler  the  novice  in  calling 
bags  as  his  first,  a  two-year-old  with  a  five-inch 
beard. 

In  the  early  morning,  during  the  spring,  a  gob- 
bler will  fly  from  his  roost  to  the  ground,  strut- 
ting and  gobbling,  whether  a  hen  is  in  sight  or 
not;  this  is  done  to  attract  the  hens,  and  it  is  then 
you  will  hear  the  puffs  to  which  Audubon  refers. 
This  sound  is  produced  by  the  gobbler  in  expel- 
ling the  air  from  its  lungs,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
strut,  the  sounds  and  motions  of  which  have 
never  been  satisfactorily  described.  While  going 
through  the  strut  the  gobbler  produces  a  number 
of  notes  and  motions  that  are  of  interest;  first, 
the  wings  are  drooped  until  the  first  six  or  eight 
feathers  at  the  end  of  the  wings  touch  the  ground; 


ASSOCIATION    OF    SEXES  129 

at  the  same  time  the  tail  is  spread  until  like  an 
open  fan  and  erected  at  right  angles  to  the  body ; 
the  neck  is  drawn  down  and  back  until  the  head 
rests  against  the  shoulder  feathers,  and  the  body 
feathers  are  all  thrown  forward  until  they  stand 
about  at  right  angles  to  their  normal  place.  At 
the  same  time  the  body  is  inflated  with  air, 
which,  with  the  drooping  wings,  spread  tail,  and 
ruffled  feathers,  gives  the  bird  the  appearance 
of  a  big  ball.  Having  blown  himself  up  to  the 
full  capacity  of  his  skin,  the  gobbler  suddenly 
releases  the  air,  making  a  puff  exactly  as  if  a 
person,  having  inflated  the  cheeks  to  their  full 
capacity,  suddenly  opens  the  mouth.  As  the 
puff  is  given,  the  bird  steps  quickly  forward  four 
or  five  paces,  dragging  the  ends  of  the  stiff  wing 
feathers  along  the  ground,  making  a  rasping 
sound;  he  throws  forward  his  chest,  and,  gradu- 
ally contracting  the  muscles,  forces  the  air  from 
his  body  with  a  low,  rumbling  boom,  the  feathers 
resuming  their  normal  position  as  the  air  is  ex- 
pelled. Three  distinct  sounds  are  produced: 
"Puff,  cluck,  b-o-o-r-r-r-m-i."  At  the  termina- 
tion of  the  gobbling  season  the  primaries  of  the 


130     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

wings,  which  are  used  to  produce  the  cluck,  are 
badly  worn  by  the  continued  dragging  on  the 
ground. 

"While  thus  occupied,"  continues  Audubon, 
"the  males  often  encounter  each  other,  and  des- 
perate battles  take  place,  ending  in  bloodshed 
and  often  in  the  loss  of  many  lives,  the  weaker 
falling  under  repeated  blows  inflicted  upon  their 
heads  by  the  stronger.  I  have  often  been  much 
diverted  while  watching  two  males  in  fierce  con- 
flict by  seeing  them  move  alternately  back  and 
forth  as  either  had  obtained  a  better  hold,  their 
wings  dropping,  tails  partly  raised,  body  feathers 
ruffled,  and  heads  covered  with  blood.  If  in 
their  struggle  and  gasps  for  breath  one  of  them 
should  lose  his  hold,  his  chance  is  over,  for  the 
other,  still  holding  fast,  hits  him  violently  with 
his  spurs  and  wings  and  in  a  few  moments  brings 
him  to  the  ground.  The  moment  he  is  dead  the 
conqueror  treads  him  underfoot;  but  what  is 
stranger,  not  with  hatred,  but  with  all  the  emo- 
tions he  employed  in  caressing  the  female." 

I  differ  with  Audubon,  not  in  the  case  of  the 
conqueror  using  affectionate  conduct  upon  a 


ASSOCIATION   OF   SEXES  131 

fallen  foe,  should  he  get  him  down,  as  that  is 
truly  a  freak  with  them ;  but  I  have  not  seen  such 
a  performance  with  wild  birds,  although  I  have 
noticed  the  domestic  gobbler  act  similarly  toward 
the  body  of  a  dead  wild  gobbler  that  I  had  placed 
before  him  on  the  ground.  I  have  very  often 
brought  such  a  bird  into  the  presence  of  a  tame 
one,  when,  at  the  very  sight  of  the  dead  bird 
on  my  back,  the  tame  one  would  begin  to  droop 
his  wings,  purr,  bow  his  neck,  and  bristle  for  a 
fight,  and  at  once  pounce  upon  the  dead  bird, 
even  pounding  me  until  I  laid  it  down  and  allowed 
him  to  vent  his  rage  by  pounding  it.  After  this 
he  would  begin  to  strut  and  gobble,  and  the  red  of 
his  head  becoming  intense  he  would  go  through 
the  caressing  motions .  More  often  though,  under 
the  circumstances,  the  tame  bird  would,  at  the 
sight  of  the  dead  wild  gobbler,  retire  a  little  way 
and  strut  in  a  furious  manner  for  an  hour  or  two. 
This  does  not  apply  to  one  instance  or  individual, 
but  many  times  in  many  places.  I  must  differ 
with  Audubon  as  to  the  results  of  these  conflicts 
ever  being  fatal.  I  have  seen  many  encounters 
as  he  describes,  but  have  never  in  all  my  life  seen 


132    THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

one  gobbler  killed  by  another,  or  even  crippled, 
although  I  have  seen  two  or  three  birds  fight 
together  for  hours  at  a  time.  Nor  have  I  ever 
found  a  gobbler  dead  in  the  woods  as  a  result  of 
such  an  encounter,  or  even  in  a  worried  condi- 
tion. I  have  killed  many  old  gobblers  and  found 
their  heads  and  necks  covered  with  blood,  with 
spur  punctures  all  over  their  breasts;  but  this 
never  stopped  them  from  gobbling,  nor  are  these 
wounds  deep,  as  the  spur,  which  is  an  inch  and  a 
quarter  long  in  the  oldest  of  them,  can  only  pene- 
trate the  skin  of  the  body  after  passing  through 
the  heavy  mail  of  thick,  tough  feathers. 

Another  proof  that  the  gobblers  in  my  hunting 
grounds  were  not  killed  this  way  is  that  I  should 
have  missed  them.  How  would  you  know?  you 
might  ask.  In  the  same  way  that  a  stock  owner 
knows  when  he  misses  a  yearling  from  his  herd. 
Being  constantly  in  the  woods,  I  knew  every 
gobbler  and  his  age  (at  least  the  length  of  his 
beard)  within  a  radius  of  several  miles,  although 
there  be  three  in  one  locality  and  five  in  another. 
During  the  time  they  were  in  flocks  or  bands,  if 
one  were  missing,  surely  I  would  find  it  out  ere 


ASSOCIATION   OF   SEXES  133 

long;  and  it  has  never  yet  happened  that,  when 
one  was  missing,  I  could  not  trace  it  to  a  gunshot 
and  not  to  turkey  homicide.  I  will  not  flatly  dis- 
pute that  there  have  been  such  incidents  as  cited 
by  Audubon,  met  with  by  others;  but  I  do  claim 
that  murder  is  not  common  among  turkeys,  and 
such  incidents  must  be  extremely  rare,  or  I  would 
have  witnessed  them.  I  can  see  no  way  by  which 
one  turkey  can  kill  another;  for,  as  I  have  said 
before,  the  spur  is  not  long  enough  except  to 
barely  penetrate  the  thick  feathers,  and  the  bit- 
ing and  pinching  of  the  tough  skin  on  the  neck  and 
head  could  not  cause  contusion  sufficient  to  pro- 
duce death,  nor  are  the  blows  from  the  wings 
sufficiently  severe  to  break  bones. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ITS    ENEMIES   AND   FOOD 

NO  BIRD  on  earth  can  boast  of  more  or  a 
greater  variety  of  enemies  than  the  wild 
turkey.  The  chief  of  them  all  is  the 
genus  Homo,  with  his  sundry  and  sure  methods  of 
destruction.  After  man  comes  a  host  of  wild 
beasts  and  birds,  including  the  lynx,  coyote, 
wolf,  fox,  mink,  coon,  skunk,  opossum,  rat,  both 
golden  and  white-headed  eagles,  goshawk,  Coo- 
per's and  other  hawks,  horned  owl,  crow,  etc., 
all  of  whom  prey  more  or  less  upon  the  poor  birds 
from  the  egg  to  maturity.  There  is  never  a  mo- 
ment in  the  poor  turkey's  life  that  eternal 
vigilance  is  not  the  price  of  its  existence.  Still, 
many  pass  the  gauntlet  and  live  to  a  great  age, 
the  limit  of  which  no  man  has  discovered.  I 
have  been  a  lifelong  hunter  of  all  sorts  of  game 
indigenous  to  the  Southern  States,  and  I  have 
never  seen  or  heard  of  a  wild  turkey  dying  a  nat- 

134 


ITS   ENEMIES   AND    FOOD  135 

ural  death,  nor  have  I  heard  of  any  disease  or 
epidemic  among  them;  and  were  it  not  for  the 
eternal  war  upon  this  fast-diminishing  species, 
especially  by  man,  they  would  be  as  plentiful  now 
as  fifty  years  ago. 

The  first  in  the  list  of  natural  enemies  of  the 
turkey,  if  we  admit  the  testimony  and  belief  of 
nearly  every  turkey  hunter,  is  the  common  lynx 
or  wildcat,  often  known  as  bobcat.  Many 
hunters  believe  that  of  all  the  enemies  of  the  wild 
turkey  the  wildcat  is  the  chief.  In  all  my  experi- 
ence I  have  never  seen  a  turkey  attacked  by  a 
cat,  nor  have  I  ever  seen  the  skeleton  of  a  turkey 
which  had  been  killed  and  eaten  by  cats.  I  have 
never  seen  a  cat  crouching  and  creeping  up  on  a 
turkey,  nor  have  I  had  one  of  them  come  to  me 
while  calling,  and  I  have  had  more  than  fifty 
years'  experience  in  turkey  hunting  in  all  the  Gulf 
States  where  the  cat  is  common.  Numerous  per- 
sons of  undoubted  veracity,  however,  have  as- 
sured me  that  they  have  seen  cats  creep  up  near 
them  while  calling  turkeys,  and  in  some  instances 
the  evidence  seems  conclusive  that  the  cat  had  no 
other  business  than  to  steal  up  and  pounce  upon 


136     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

the  turkey.  Like  any  other  carnivorous  beast, 
the  lynx  may  partake  of  turkey  as  an  occasional 
repast,  if  they  are  thrown  in  his  way,  but  this  is 
an  exception  and  not  the  rule. 

My  brother,  who  is  a  well-known  turkey 
hunter  in  Mississippi,  has  furnished  me  with  the 
following  incident:  As  he  sat  on  the  bank  of  a 
small  lagoon,  in  the  early  morning,  with  his  back 
against  a  log  that  lay  across  the  lagoon,  calling 
a  gobbler  which  was  slow  to  come,  he  heard  the 
soft  tread  of  something  on  the  log  very  near  his 
head,  on  the  side  next  to  the  lagoon.  Turning 
slowly,  he  saw  a  large  cat  within  three  feet  of 
him,  apparently  having  crossed  the  water  in  an 
attempt  to  spring  upon  the  supposed  turkey  that 
had  been  yelping  on  that  side.  When  my  brother 
faced  the  cat,  it  beat  a  rapid  retreat,  and  my 
brother,  springing  to  his  feet,  waited  until  the 
cat  left  the  log,  thus  turning  its  side  toward 
him,  when  he  fired,  killing  it  on  the  spot.  There 
is  little  doubt  but  that  in  another  minute  the  cat 
would  have  jumped  on  my  brother's  head.  An- 
other time  he  was  sitting  calling  a  gobbler,  when 
suddenly  he  heard  a  growling  and  purring  noise 


ITS    ENEMIES   AND    FOOD  137 

in  the  cane  near  him.  Presently  there  ap- 
peared three  large  cats,  but  they  seemed  to  be  play- 
ing or  having  a  love  feast,  as  they  walked  about, 
sprang  upon  each  other,  squalled,  scratched, 
springing  up  the  trees,  then  down  again,  until 
he  broke  up  the  fun  by  a  couple  of  shots  that 
laid  out  a  brace  of  them.  Another  time  he  was 
calling  a  gobbler  which  was  gobbling  vehemently, 
when  suddenly  there  was  a  great  commotion 
among  the  turkeys,  clucking  and  flying  up  in 
trees.  A  cat  then  appeared  out  of  the  cane  and 
was  shot. 

Now,  does  this  prove,  in  either  of  the  last  two 
cases,  that  the  cats  were  trying  to  catch  the  tur- 
keys? By  no  means.  For,  had  the  cats  been  try- 
ing to  get  a  turkey,  they  would  not  have  shown 
themselves.  I  believe  the  cats  were  simply 
lounging  about  in  quest  of  rabbits  or  squirrels, 
and  happened  to  pass  near  the  birds,  which 
became  frightened  at  the  appearance  of  so  un- 
canny a  visitor.  In  the  last  incident,  had  the 
cat  been  attempting  to  seize  or  pounce  upon 
the  turkeys,  they  would  not  have  gobbled  again, 
but  would  have  left  the  place  in  a  hurry.  An- 


138     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

other  reason  why  I  claim  that  wildcats  do  not  ha- 
bitually feed  on  turkeys  is,  that  one  may  find  a 
given  number  of  turkeys  in  a  piece  of  woodland, 
and  never  miss  one  from  the  flock,  unless  trapped 
or  killed  by  a  gun — that  is,  after  they  are  grown. 
I  will  cite  another  incident  connected  with 
the  habits  of  the  lynx  or  wildcat  that  came 
under  my  observation  while  in  quest  of  wild  tur- 
keys in  the  State  of  Alabama,  in  company  with 
my  friend  John  K.  Renaud,  of  New  Orleans,  an 
enthusiastic  and  inveterate  sportsman.  We 
were  in  the  Tombigbee  Swamp,  and  one  morning, 
while  sitting  together  in  a  fallen  treetop,  calling 
turkeys,  our  backs  against  a  log,  I  felt  something 
soft  against  my  hip.  As  it  felt  a  little  warmer 
than  the  earth  should  feel,  I  pulled  away  the 
leaves  with  my  hands,  and  there  lay  an  immense 
cane  rabbit  dead.  Upon  pulling  it  out,  I  found  its 
head  was  eaten  off  close  to  the  shoulders,  with  no 
other  part  touched.  This  was  the  work  of  a 
lynx.  Two  days  after,  we  were  sitting  by  an- 
other log,  not  over  a  hundred  yards  from  the  first 
spot,  and  for  the  same  purpose.  I  found  there  a 
similar  object,  a  large  rabbit  freshly  killed  and 


ITS   ENEMIES   AND   FOOD  139 

half  eaten,  the  head  and  forepart  of  the  body 
gone.  That  was  the  work  of  a  cat.  There  were 
plenty  of  turkeys  frequenting  that  ridge  every 
day,  but  never  one  of  them  was  taken  by  a  lynx, 
as  I  knew  positively  just  how  many  gobblers  and 
hens  there  were  in  that  piece  of  woods. 

I  do  not  think  wildcats  ever  eat  the  eggs  of  the 
turkey  when  they  come  across  a  nest  of  them ;  they 
may  catch  the  sitting  birds,  but  all  other  animals 
named  in  the  foregoing  list  eagerly  eat  the  eggs, 
if  they  are  lucky  enough  to  find  the  nests;  this 
is  also  true  of  the  crow,  who,  on  locating  a  nest, 
will  watch  until  the  mother  leaves  it  in  search  of 
food,  when  it  will  quickly  destroy  as  many  eggs 
as  possible.  All  the  animals  and  birds  named  will 
catch  the  young  turkeys,  and  the  larger  birds 
and  animals  will  kill  grown  turkeys  when  they 
can  catch  them. 

Snakes  give  the  turkey  very  little  trouble.  I 
do  not  believe  any  snake  we  have  can  swallow  a 
turkey  egg,  except  possibly  the  largest  of  the 
colubers  (chicken  snakes).  I  have  never  met 
one  that  was  guilty  of  it,  although  I  have  seen 
them  swallow  the  eggs  of  the  tame  turkey. 


140     THE    WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS    HUNTING 

Mr.  John  Hamilton,  who  has  had  great  experi- 
ence as  a  turkey  hunter,  tells  me  of  seeing  horned 
owls  catch  turkeys  in  the  Brazos  Bottoms  in 
Texas,  a  number  of  times,  as  follows : 

On  going  into  the  woods  before  daylight,  and, 
taking  a  stand  near  some  known  turkey  roost, 
to  be  ready  to  call  them  on  their  leaving  the 
roost,  he  has,  a  number  of  times,  been  led  directly 
to  the  tree  in  which  the  turkeys  were  roosting 
by  a  horned  owl  who  was  after  a  turkey  for 
breakfast.  By  walking  quietly  under  the  tree, 
and  getting  the  birds  outlined  against  the  sky, 
he  could  see  what  was  going  on.  Turkeys  pre- 
fer to  roost  on  limbs  parallel  to  the  ground,  and 
the  owl,  selecting  a  hen  perched  on  a  suitable 
limb,  would  alight  on  the  same  limb  between 
her  and  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  moving  sedately 
along  the  limb  toward  the  victim,  and  when  very 
near  her  would  voice  a  low  "who,  who."  The 
turkey,  not  liking  the  nearness  of  such  a  neighbor, 
who  spoke  in  such  sepulchral  tones,  would  reply, 
"Quit,  quit,"  and  move  farther  out  on  the  limb. 
After  a  few  moments  the  owl  would  again  sidle 
up  to  the  hen,  repeating  his  first  question,  "Who, 


ITS    ENEMIES   AND    FOOD  141 

who."  "Quit,  quit,"  would  answer  Miss  Turkey, 
moving  a  little  farther  out  on  the  limb.  This 
would  be  kept  up  until  the  end  of  the  limb  was 
reached  and  the  turkey  would  be  obliged  to  fly, 
and  then  the  owl  would  catch  her.  From  per- 
sonal observation  I  know  horned  owls  always 
push  chickens  from  the  roosts  and  catch  them 
while  on  the  wing. 

A  great  destroyer  of  the  turkey  is  rain  and 
long  wet  spells,  just  after  they  are  hatched  in  the 
months  of  May  and  June.  I  have  always  no- 
ticed that,  if  these  months  were  reasonably  dry, 
there  would  be  plenty  of  turkeys  and  quail  the 
following  fall.  After  all,  the  weather  controls 
the  crops  of  turkeys  more  than  all  else. 

The  local  range  of  the  wild  turkey  varies  in 
proportion  as  the  food  supply  is  generous  or 
scanty.  If  food  is  plentiful,  the  turkey  remains 
near  where  hatched,  and  does  not  make  exten- 
sive rambles,  its  daily  journeys  being  limited  to 
a  mile  or  so,  and  often  to  not  a  fourth  of  that  dis- 
tance. I  can  not  agree  with  writers  who  claim 
that  wild  turkeys  are  constantly  on  the  move, 
travelling  the  country  over  with  no  intention  of 


142     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

ever  stopping.  Of  course,  when  the  food  supply 
is  limited  and  scant,  as  during  the  seasons  of 
dearth  of  mast,  the  turkeys  are  necessarily  com- 
pelled to  wander  farther  in  order  to  secure  suf- 
ficient food;  but  they  will  always  return  to  their 
native  haunts  when  their  appetites  are  appeased. 
In  the  early  morning,  all  things  being  favor- 
able, their  first  move  after  leaving  the  roost  is  in 
search  of  food,  which  search  they  undertake 
with  characteristic  vigor  and  energy,  scratching 
and  turning  over  the  dry  leaves  and  decaying 
vegetation.  Two  kinds  of  food  are  thus  gained : 
various  seed  or  mast,  fallen  from  the  trees 
and  bushes,  and  all  manner  of  insects,  of 
both  of  which  they  are  very  fond,  and  which 
constitute  a  large  part  of  their  food  supply. 
There  is  no  bird  of  the  gallinaceous  order  that 
requires  and  destroys  more  insects  than  wild 
turkeys.  They  will  scratch  with  great  earnest- 
ness over  a  given  space,  then,  all  at  once,  start 
off,  moving  rapidly,  sometimes  raising  their 
broad  wings  and  flapping  them  against  their 
sides,  as  if  to  stretch,  while  others  leap  and  skip 
and  waltz  about.  Then  they  will  go  in  one  di- 


The  chief  of  all  his  enemies  is  the  "Genus  homo' 


ITS    ENEMIES   AND    FOOD  143 

rection  for  some  distance.  Suddenly,  one  finds 
a  morsel  of  some  kind  to  eat,  and  begins  to  scratch 
among  the  leaves,  the  whole  flock  doing  like- 
wise, and  they  will  keep  this  up  until  a  large 
space,  perhaps  half  an  acre  of  land,  is  so  gone 
over.  What  induces  them  to  scratch  up  one 
place  so  thoroughly  and  leave  others  untouched 
would  seem  a  mystery  to  the  inexperienced;  but 
close  observation  will  show  that  such  scratching 
indicates  the  presence  of  some  kind  of  food  under 
the  leaves.  It  may  be  the  nuts  of  the  beech,  oak, 
chestnut,  chinquapin,  black  or  sweet  gum  tree, 
pecan  nut,  grape,  or  muscadine  seed.  If  one  will 
observe  the  scratchings,  it  will  be  seen  that  they 
occur  under  one  or  another  of  such  trees  or  vines. 
Thus  they  travel  on,  stopping  to  scratch  at  in- 
tervals until  their  crops  are  filled. 

Under  certain  conditions,  wild  turkeys  are 
compelled  to  seek  numerous  sources  to  ob- 
tain a  supply  of  food,  as  when  there  is  a  failure 
of  the  mast  crop,  which  affords  the  principal 
supply  of  their  food,  or  when  there  is  an  over- 
flow of  the  great  swamps  or  river  bottoms,  which 
turkeys  so  often  inhabit.  When  such  over- 


144     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

flows  occur,  the  turkeys  are  either  forced  to  take 
up  their  abode  in  the  trees,  or  to  leave  their  feed- 
ing ground  and  retreat  to  the  high  lands  that  are 
not  overflowed.  In  the  latter  case  there  is  little 
trouble  in  procuring  food  by  scratching  in  the 
dry  leaves  or  gleaning  in  the  grain  fields.  But 
turkeys  are  hard  to  drive  from  their  haunts,  even 
by  high  waters,  and  more  often  than  not  they 
will  stubbornly  remain  in  the  immediate  locality 
of  their  favorite  swamps  and  river  bottoms  by 
taking  to  the  trees  until  the  waters  have  subsided ; 
they  will  persistently  remain  in  the  trees  even 
for  two  or  three  months,  with  the  water  five  to 
twenty -five  feet  in  depth  beneath  them.  At 
such  times  they  subsist  upon  the  green  buds  of 
the  trees  upon  which  they  perch,  and  the  few 
grapes  and  berry  seeds  that  may  remain  attached 
to  the  vines  which  they  can  reach  from  the 
limbs.  It  is  truly  remarkable  how  long  these 
birds  can  subsist  and  keep  in  fair  flesh  under  such 
conditions.  There  is  a  critical  time  during  these 
overflows,  when  turkeys  are  hard  pressed  in  that 
they  may  obtain  sufficient  food  to  sustain  life; 
this  is  when  the  rivers  overflow  in  December, 


ITS    ENEMIES   AND    FOOD  145 

January,  or  February,  before  the  buds  have  ap- 
peared or  have  become  large  enough  to  be  of  any 
value  as  food.  Under  these  conditions  they 
must  fly  from  tree  to  tree  until  they  reach  dry 
ground,  or  starve  to  death. 

Although  I  have  never  known  of  a  gobbler 
being  thus  starved  to  death,  I  have  seen  them  so 
emaciated  they  could  hardly  stand.  One  inci- 
dent of  this  sort  I  will  relate :  I  found  four  very 
large  old  gobblers  in  an  overflowed  swamp  on  the 
Tombigbee  River  in  Alabama,  and  as  it  was  in 
February,  it  was  too  early  in  the  year  for  herb- 
age to  begin  the  spring  growth.  The  river  had 
overflowed  the  bottoms  suddenly,  and  it  was  a 
long  way  to  dry  land,  perhaps  three  miles,  so  the 
turkeys  could  get  little  or  nothing  to  sustain  life. 
I  shot  one  of  these  gobblers,  not  thinking  of  their 
probable  condition,  and  found  I  had  bagged  a 
skeleton. 

If  the  bottoms  are  not  over  three  miles  wide, 
turkeys  will  usually,  on  approach  of  rising  water, 
start  for  the  dry  ridges  farther  back  from  the 
river,  and  there  remain  until  the  waters  steal 
upon  them,  when  they  will  fly  into  the  trees. 


146     THE   W<ILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

Sometimes  a  ridge  is  an  island  at  sundown  when 
they  go  to  roost,  but  is  covered  during  the  night, 
and  when  the  morning  comes  there  is  no  dry  land 
in  sight  for  the  poor  birds  to  alight  upon.  This  is 
bewildering  to  them  and  presents  a  new  state  of 
affairs.  If  there  be  an  old  mother  hen  in  the  flock, 
she  will  at  once  take  in  the  situation,  and  by 
certain  significant  clucks  and  a  peculiar  cackle, 
which  is  a  part  of  their  elaborate  language, 
she  will  take  wing  and  fly  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  in  the  direction  of  dry  land,  alighting  in  the 
trees,  when,  after  a  rest,  with  another  cluck  or 
two,  the  party  will  continue  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. This  is  kept  up  until  the  dry  land  is 
reached,  when,  with  wild  acclaim  and  a  general 
cackle  of  exultation,  they  all  alight  on  the  ground 
and  proceed  at  once,  at  a  fearful  rate,  to  scratch 
up  the  leaves  in  search  of  food. 

The  hunter,  aware  of  these  habits  after  the 
swamps  begin  to  overflow,  will  lose  no  opportu- 
nity for  an  early  visit  to  the  hummock  at  the  mar- 
gin of  the  backwaters.  The  turkeys  do  not  re- 
main near  the  edge  of  the  overflow  for  any  length 
of  time,  but  very  soon  extend  their  range  farther 


ITS   ENEMIES   AND   FOOD  147 

into  the  high  forests  and  fields.  They  seem  to 
know  instinctively  that  it  is  unsafe  to  linger  near 
the  edge  of  the  water. 

In  case  the  overflow  occurs  in  March  or  April, 
when  the  trees  are  full  of  fresh  buds  and  blos- 
soms, the  turkeys  have  an  easy  time,  living  in  the 
treetops,  fluttering  from  branch  to  branch,  gath- 
ering the  tender  buds  and  young  leaves  of  such 
trees  as  the  ash,  hackberry,  pin  oak,  and  the 
yellow  bloom  of  the  birch,  all  of  which  are  favor- 
ite foods,  while  of  the  beech  and  some  other  trees 
it  is  the  fringe-like  bloom  they  eat.  They  will 
remain  in  the  trees  out  of  sight  of  land  for  months 
if  they  have  plenty  of  buds  and  young  leaves  to 
eat,  and  keep  in  fair  flesh ;  but  the  flesh  is  not  so 
palatable  as  when  feeding  on  mast  or  grain. 

I  once  knew  a  flock  of  fifteen  turkeys  to  re- 
main in  trees  above  an  overflow  for  two  months. 
I  could  see  them  daily  from  my  cabin  on  the  bank 
of  a  lake  in  Alabama,  and  could  sit  at  my  table 
and  watch  them  fluttering  as  they  fed  on  the 
hackberry  buds.  They  were  in  sight  of  a  dry, 
piney  wood,  and  a  flight  of  three  hundred  yards 
across  a  lake  would  have  taken  them  to  the  dry 


148     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

land,  but  not  once  did  they  seem  inclined  to  go 
to  it.  They  remained  in  the  trees  until  the  water 
went  down,  and  the  next  I  saw  of  them  was  in  an 
open  plantation,  with  the  lake  on  one  side  and 
the  river  on  the  other.  The  water  had  barely 
left  the  surface  in  places,  and  it  was  muddy  and 
sloppy.  They  never  once  went  to  dry  land,  but 
returned  to  their  swamp  haunts  as  the  water 
abated. 

On  one  occasion,  as  I  was  going  down  the  river 
in  my  skiff,  I  saw  and  passed  a  great  number  of 
wild  turkeys,  one  hundred  or  more,  in  small  flocks 
in  the  timber  near  and  along  the  river  banks. 
The  adjoining  swamps  were  overflowed,  with  no 
land  above  the  water.  Most  of  these  turkeys 
were  sitting  in  cottonwood  trees  immediately  on 
the  river  banks  or  a  little  way  out  in  the  tim- 
ber, eating  the  buds.  Many  of  them  were  in  the 
trees  that  hung  over  the  river,  and,  although 
most  of  the  trees  were  leafless,  thus  exposing  the 
turkeys  to  view,  they  remained  there  quite 
unconcerned  while  steamboats  passed  right  by 
them.  As  I  had  three  turkeys  already  in  my 
boat,  I  felt  no  desire  to  molest  them  as  I  drifted 


ITS    ENEMIES    AND    FOOD  149 

by  and  under  them.  I  passed  right  under  some 
fine  gobblers  on  their  perches,  not  over  thirty 
feet  up,  and  they  only  looked  curiously  down  at 
me ;  they  seemed  to  be  busily  engaged  in  feeding, 
and  sailed  from  tree  to  tree,  keeping  up  a  great 
stir  and  racket.  It  is  a  beautiful  sight  to  watch 
a  flock  of  wild  turkeys  budding,  especially  on 
beech  buds.  The  branches  of  the  beech  trees 
are  long  and  so  limber  that  the  birds  with  all 
their  efforts  can  barely  hold  on  to  the  tiny  twigs 
while  they  gather  their  food ;  hence  they  are  kept 
in  a  constant  wobble  and  flutter,  bobbing  up  and 
down  with  their  wings  spread  out  to  sustain  an 
equilibrium,  and  their  broad  tails  waving  and 
tossing,  bringing  them  into  all  manner  of  atti- 
tudes, thus  enabling  the  hunter  to  see  and  hear 
them  a  quarter  of  a  mile  through  the  timber. 
Some  get  upon  very  small  limbs,  then  stretch  out 
their  long  necks  and  pick  the  buds;  others  will 
spread  out  both  wings  for  support  and  lie  prone 
on  a  bunch  of  twigs  while  they  feed.  There  is 
little  or  no  trouble  for  the  hunter  to  approach  a 
flock  so  engaged  and  pick  off  his  choice.  They 
are  so  bent  on  eating  that  they  take  no  note  of 


150     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

what  is  going  on  around  them;  even  if  over  dry 
land  they  will  often  remain  in  the  trees  half  a 
day  eating  buds,  if  other  food  is  scarce,  and  when 
tired  or  satiated  they  will  sit  calmly  on  some 
large  limb  and  go  to  sleep  or  preen  their  feathers. 
This  is  one  of  the  best  opportunities  afforded  the 
crafty  hunter  with  his  good  rifle  to  steal  up  be- 
hind a  tree  and  deliberately  drop  one,  as  at  this 
time  the  leaves  are  too  small  to  afford  much  cover, 
and  the  turkeys  are  exposed  to  open  view,  giving 
the  prettiest  shots  imaginable  for  the  rifle.  While 
this  is  one  of  the  most  successful  and  easiest  ways 
of  securing  turkeys,  there  are  few  hunters  who 
know  enough  about  it  to  take  advantage  of 
it.  Persons  will  often  pass  under  trees  in  a  tur- 
key locality,  when  suddenly  one  or  more  turkeys 
will  fly  out.  The  hunter  looks  up,  but  sees  only 
the  turkeys  on  the  wing,  and  cannot  understand 
why  they  were  in  the  trees  at  that  time  of  day, 
as  he  has  not  flushed  any.  He  wonders  how 
they  came  to  be  there  and  does  not  know  they 
were  up  there  budding,  having  probably  been 
there  all  the  morning. 

The  budding  season  lasts  but  a  short  time,  if 


ITS    ENEMIES   AND    FOOD  151 

the  birds  are  not  forced  to  it  by  an  overflow.  On 
dry  land  it  lasts  a  month  or  six  weeks,  for  by 
that  time  the  buds  have  matured  into  full-grown 
leaves,  and  are  too  old  and  tough  for  the  birds  to 
eat. 


CHAPTER  IX 

HABITS   OF   ASSOCIATION    AND    ROOSTING 

ATER  obtaining  a  supply  of  food,  the  wild 
turkeys  become  moody  and  careless, 
lounging  about  the  sunny  slopes  if  the 
weather  be  cool,  or  if  it  be  hot,  seeking  the 
shade  of  the  hummock  or  thicket,  preening  their 
feathers  or  wallowing  in  the  dust.  They  thus 
pass  the  middle  hours  of  the  day  in  social  har- 
mony and  restful  abandon.  About  three  or  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  line  of  march  is  re- 
sumed in  the  direction  of  the  roosting  place,  and 
they  gather  their  evening  meal  as  they  journey 
along.  They  are  excellent  timekeepers,  usually 
winding  up  the  day  at  one  of  their  favourite 
roosts;  but  in  case  this  calculation  is  faulty  and 
sundown  overtakes  them  a  mile  or  so  from  the  de- 
sired spot,  they  will  start  on  a  run  in  single  file,  the 
old  hens  leading,  and  keep  going  rapidly  until 
their  destination  is  reached.  They  will  then  stop 

152 


HABITS    OF   ASSOCIATION   AND    ROOSTING      153 

suddenly  in  a  close  group,  peer  about,  uttering 
low  purring  sounds,  while  having  a  breathing 
spell  from  the  long  run.  Having  regained  their 
composure,  the  old  hens  will  sound  several  clucks 
in  rapid  succession,  terminating  in  a  gutteral 
cackle,  when  the  whole  of  the  flock  will  take 
wing.  With  a  wild  roar,  up  they  go  in  different 
directions,  alighting  in  the  largest  trees  with  sel- 
dom more  than  two  or  three  turkeys  in  a  single 
tree.  If  they  are  not  satisfied  with  their  first 
selection  of  a  roosting  place,  they  will  fly  from 
tree  to  tree  until  a  satisfactory  place  is  found; 
then  they  settle  down  quietly  for  the  night. 

Wild  turkeys  have  a  preference  for  roosting 
over  water,  and  they  will  often  go  a  long  way  in 
order  to  secure  such  a  roost.  The  backwater 
from  the  overflowing  streams,  when  it  spreads 
out  widely  through  the  standing  timber  of  the 
river  bottoms,  affords  them  great  comfort;  also 
the  cypress  ponds  to  be  found  in  our  Southern 
river  districts.  They  evidently  fancy  that  there 
is  greater  safety  in  such  places. 

The  turkey  is  happy  when  it  can  traverse  the 
ridges,  glades,  and  flats  in  a  day's  ramble  from 


154     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

one  watercourse  to  another,  having  a  roosting 
place  at  one  ridge  one  night  and  the  next  night 
at  another.  This  sort  of  arrangement  suits  them 
admirably,  as  they  dislike  to  roost  in  the  same 
trees  two  or  more  consecutive  nights.  I  have 
known  them  to  make  such  regular  changes  as 
to  roost  in  three  or  four  different  places  in  a 
week,  bringing  up  at  the  same  place  not  exceed- 
ing once  or  twice  a  week,  and  that  on  or  about 
certain  days.  These  are  facts  peculiar  to  the 
wild  turkey,  especially  if  localities  are  favorably 
arranged.  But  often  they  will  roost  very  many 
nights  near  the  same  place.  If  the  range  is  un- 
limited, however,  they  will  seldom  roost  oftener 
than  twice  a  week  at  a  given  spot.  There  are 
exceptions  though,  for  I  have  known  positively 
of  old  gobblers  who  took  up  their  abode  at  a 
certain  spot  and  roosted,  if  not  in  the  same  tree, 
in  the  same  clump  of  trees,  night  after  night  and 
year  after  year  with  the  persistent  regularity  of 
the  peacock,  which  will  roost  on  the  same  limb  of 
a  tree  for  ten  or  twenty  years  if  undisturbed. 
When  an  old  gobbler  does  take  to  this  hermit- 
like  custom,  he  is  the  most  difficult  bird  to 


HABITS   OF  ASSOCIATION  AND   ROOSTING     155 

bag  in  the  world.  His  life  seems  immune  from 
attacks  of  any  nature,  and  he  seems  to  know  the 
tactics  of  every  hunter  in  the  vicinity  of  his  range. 
He  keeps  aloof  from  any  old  logs  or  stumps 
where  an  enemy  may  lurk,  and  never  gobbles  un- 
til daylight,  so  that  he  can  take  in  every  inch  of 
his  surroundings.  I  have  killed  from  four  to  six 
old  gobblers,  in  a  given  range,  while  trying  to  bag 
a  certain  stubborn  old  chap  whose  vigilance  and 
good  luck  have  saved  him  from  bullets  for  years ; 
but  through  patience  and  dogged  persistence 
in  the  hunter  he  succumbed  at  last.  Although 
some  hold  out  longer  in  their  reserved  and  re- 
tired course,  I  can  truthfully  say  that  I  have  yet 
to  encounter  one  that  can  not  be  brought  to  the 
gun  by  fair  and  square  calling.  Many  experi- 
enced and  worthy  hunters  will  criticise  this  as- 
sertion, and  are  honest  in  their  convictions  that  I 
am  in  error;  but  I  will  take  the  dissenter  to  the 
haunts  of  the  most  astute  old  gobbler  he  may 
select,  and  call  the  turkey  right  up  to  the  muzzle 
of  his  gun,  or  near  enough  to  see  the  glint  of  his  eye. 
A  flock  may  be  met  one  morning  on  the  skirts 
of  the  backwater  from  an  overflow  river  bottom, 


156     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

probably  a  flock  of  hens  and  gobblers  together. 
There  would  be  a  great  commotion  among  them 
and  a  general  mixing  up,  yelping,  and  gobbling. 
On  visiting  this  place  the  next  morning  one  would 
not  be  seen  or  heard.  Crossing  to  another  lake 
or  backwater,  one  might  find  the  whole  flock,  or 
possibly  the  gobblers,  with  not  a  hen  around.  If 
in  the  gobbling  season,  and  the  males  are  gob- 
bling, in  less  than  half  an  hour  the  hens  would  be 
among  them,  but  if  not  in  the  gobbling  season 
the  former  may  not  meet  the  latter  again  for  a 
month,  as  in  the  spring  the  sexes  have  no  more 
attraction  for  each  other  than  were  they  birds  of 
entirely  different  groups.  Except  in  the  spring 
you  may  flush  and  scatter  a  flock  of  hens  and 
gobblers,  and  after  a  reasonable  wait  begin  to 
call  with  the  notes  of  the  hen.  Not  a  gobbler 
will  answer  or  notice  you  at  all,  but  the  hens  will 
reply  by  yelping,  squealing,  and  clucking.  The 
gobblers  meantime  are  as  stolid  as  an  Indian  and 
as  silent  as  a  dead  stump.  Wait  until  the  hens 
have  gone,  then  begin  the  lingo  of  the  gobbler 
and  you  find  another  result. 

Usually  there  are  plenty  of  wild  turkeys  in  the 


An  ideal  turkey  country.     They  will  go  a  long  way  to  roost  in  trees 
growing  in  water 


HABITS  OF  ASSOCIATION  AND  ROOSTING    157 

Southern  river  bottoms,  in  fall  and  winter,  and 
there  they  remain  until  driven  to  the  uplands 
by  overflows,  where  they  must  subsist  on  pine 
mast,  or  remain  in  the  trees  over  the  water,  and 
live  on  the  young  buds  and  tender  leaves.  I  have 
repeatedly  noticed  this  in  the  Tombigbee  swamps 
in  the  State  of  Alabama.  Those  that  do  not  go 
to  the  hills  and  pine  forests  will  hug  the  margin  of 
the  overflow  until  the  waters  subside,  when  they 
will  immediately  return  to  their  former  haunts, 
however  wet  and  muddy.  When  incubating  time 
comes  they  seek  the  higher,  dryer,  and  more 
open  places,  grassy  and  brush-covered  abandoned 
plantations,  there  to  carry  out  the  duties  of 
reproduction. 

After  the  season  of  incubation  is  at  an  end  the 
gobblers  cease,  almost  entirely,  associating  with 
the  hens,  collecting,  as  the  summer  advances, 
in  bands  of  from  two  to  a  dozen.  Thus  they  re- 
main all  through  the  summer,  autumn  and  win- 
ter, acting  the  role  of  old  bachelors  or  widowers, 
and  never  separating  unless  disturbed  by  an 
enemy.  The  females  care  for  and  rear  the  young 
broods,  returning  to  the  swamps  or  hummocks 


158     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

in  the  fall,  where  their  favorite  food  has  matured 
and  shed. 

One  of  the  last  seasons  I  spent  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  Tombigbee  country  in  Alabama  there 
were  no  grapes  or  muscadines  in  the  bottoms, 
but  a  good  pin  oak  crop  of  acorns,  such  as 
the  turkeys  like.  In  the  higher  woods  there  was 
a  heavy  black  gum  and  berry  crop,  and  there 
the  turkeys  were,  while  in  the  oak  bottoms  there 
was  scarcely  a  flock. 

During  the  summer  months,  old  gobblers,  like 
old  bucks,  having  banded  together,  become  very 
friendly  and  attached  to  each  other,  feeding  in 
perfect  harmony.  They  stroll  together  wherever 
their  inclinations  may  lead  them,  and  are  then 
very  shy  and  retiring.  One  seldom  sees  them 
in  the  summer,  but  when  they  do  it  is  generally 
in  an  open  prairie  or  old  field,  eating  blackberries, 
wallowing  in  an  old  ash  hole,  or  chasing  grass- 
hoppers. These  old  bachelors  do  not  get  fat 
until  fall,  although  they  have  an  ample  supply 
of  food.  They  are  lean  and  ugly  and  forlorn 
looking  until  after  the  molting  season  is  over, 
in  August  and  September,  and  their  new  bronze 


HABITS  OF  ASSOCIATION  AND  ROOSTING      159 

suits  are  donned ;  they  then  begin  to  fatten,  and 
by  December  are  in  excellent  condition  of  flesh 
and  feathers,  continuing  to  improve  until  the 
gobbling  season  returns  next  spring.  These 
confirmed  old  bachelors  will  not  associate  with 
the  other  turkeys,  but  the  old  hens  that  have 
had  their  nests  broken  up  and  have  reared  no 
broods  will  associate  all  winter  with  the  young 
broods  and  their  mothers.  I  have  often  observed 
that  these  old  patriarchs,  as  a  rule,  never  associ- 
ate with  any  other  age  or  sex  of  turkeys.  In 
summer  you  will  often  see  an  old  gobbler  or  two 
with  a  flock  of  hens  early  in  the  morning;  but  see 
the  same  flock  three  hours  later  and  he  is  not  with 
them.  In  the  early  morning  hours  of  spring,  while 
there  is  a  general  gobbling  and  strutting  parade, 
all  ages  and  sexes  mingle  in  the  exuberance  of  the 
season  and  hour;  but  when  this  outburst  of  frolic 
and  revelry  is  over,  the  different  bands  return 
to  the  sterner  business  of  the  day ,  that  of  search- 
ing for  food.  The  old  gobblers  remain  gobbling, 
strutting,  gyrating  round,  picking  at  and  teasing 
each  other,  or  strumming  now  and  then  with  the 
tip  of  wings,  until  a  riot  is  precipitated  and  a 


100     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

fight  ensues,  in  which  two  become  engaged,  while 
the  more  peaceful  or  timid  quickly  leave  the 
vicinity.  The  gladiators  then  begin  a  tug  of 
war,  and  after  a  few  blows  and  jams  with  wings 
and  spurs,  one  seizes  another  by  the  loose  skin 
of  the  head,  which  is  very  limp,  affording  an  ex- 
cellent hold;  then  No.  2  gets  his  opponent  by  the 
nape  of  the  neck,  and  they  pull,  push,  and  shove, 
standing  on  tiptoes,  prancing  and  hauling  away, 
each  endeavoring  to  stretch  his  neck  as  high  as 
possible,  as  if  determined  to  pull  the  other's  head 
off,  while  both  necks  are  twisted  around  each 
other,  their  wattles  aglow  with  the  red  sign  of 
anger,  while  their  hazel  eyes  sparkle  with  wrath. 
They  writhe,  twist,  and  haul  away,  until  perhaps 
a  quarter  of  an  acre  of  earth  is  trampled,  and 
keep  it  up  until  the  foolish  combat  ends  from 
sheer  exhaustion,  when  one  of  them  runs  away. 
The  victor,  if  not  too  much  used  up,  having 
recovered  breath  and  strength,  will  set  up  a  gob- 
bling and  strutting  that  will  cause  the  leaves  of 
the  trees  to  tremble.  He  thus  proclaims  his 
victory  and  assumes  the  role  of  monarch  of  all 
he  surveys. 


A  hermit. 


It  would  take  an  expert  turkey  hunter 
to  circumvent  this  bird 


HABITS  OF  ASSOCIATION  AND  ROOSTING     161 

By  these  fights  one  gobbler  establishes  his 
claim  as  lord  of  a  certain  range,  which  no  other 
gobbler  will  dispute  during  the  rest  of  the  season. 

Sometimes,  though  rarely,  I  have  known  an 
old  monarch  to  take  a  companion  gobbler  into 
the  very  bosom  of  his  harem,  however  strange 
this  may  appear.  I  have  known  of  half  a  dozen 
instances  of  this  nature  where  two  old  gobblers 
have  formed  an  inseparable  alliance  and  remained 
together  staunch  friends  for  years.  Hens  are 
seldom  seen  in  their  company  and  they  are  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  call.  I  hunted  one  such  brace 
three  years,  killing  many  other  gobblers  in  the 
long  effort  to  bag  these  two ;  never  did  I  call  them 
within  gunshot,  until  one  day  by  some  accident 
they  got  separated,  when  it  was  no  trouble  to  call 
and  kill  one  of  them;  the  other  is,  for  all  I 
know,  alive  now. 

Such  fights  as  I  have  described  break  up  the 
social  ring  of  old  bachelors,  and  until  the  love 
season  is  over  each  male  takes  up  a  range  to  him- 
self, calling  to  his  side  as  many  of  the  females 
within  hearing  of  his  voice  as  will  come  to  him. 
Several  gobblers  can  be  heard  in  the  morning 


162     THE    WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS    HUNTING 

gobbling  within  a  radius  of  a  few  hundred  yards, 
but  each  keeps  to  himself,  and  by  frequent  and 
persistent  gobbling  and  strutting  secures  the 
society  of  such  hens  as  may  favor  him  with  their 
presence. 

After  the  disbanding  of  the  old  gobblers  is  the 
best  time  in  the  whole  season  to  bring  them  to 
call,  as  they  will  come  to  almost  any  call,  yelp, 
or  cluck;  except  the  mogul  himself.  His  bigotry 
and  vanity  render  him  most  indifferent  to  the 
seductive  coquetry  of  the  females,  much  less 
to  human  imitators.  Being  assured  of,  and 
satisfied  with,  a  well-filled  harem,  he  gives  little 
care  to  the  discordant  piping  of  the  hunter,  or 
even  the  gentle  quaver  of  a  hen. 

In  this  latitude  —  from  30  degrees  to  33  de- 
grees north  —  the  gobbling  season  begins  about 
the  first  week  of  March,  ending  the  last  of  May, 
embracing  about  three  months,  though  the  time 
depends  much  on  the  thermal  conditions  of  the 
spring.  If  the  weather  be  dry  and  pleasant  the 
season  will  not  last  as  long  as  if  wet  and  chilly. 


CHAPTER  X 

GUNS  I  HAVE  USED  ON  TURKEYS 

THE  rifle  is,  par  excellence,  the  arm  for 
hunting  the  wild  turkey  under  nearly 
all  conditions.  It  matters  little  what 
calibre  rifle  is  used.  Years  ago  when  I  began  to 
hunt  turkeys  the  muzzle-loading  round  ball  rifle 
was  the  only  arm  thought  fit,  and  it  surely  did 
the  work  well  and  satisfactorily. 

It  is  said  that  Davy  Crockett  when  a  boy  was 
compelled  by  his  father  to  shoot  enough  game  in 
the  morning  to  supply  his  dinner,  and  was  allowed 
one  load  of  powder  and  a  ball  to  do  it  with.  If  he 
missed  and  got  no  game  he  got  no  dinner. 

In  the  old  days  the  .38  calibre,  shooting  a 
round  ball,  was  about  the  proper  size,  with  not 
too  much  twist  in  the  rifle;  one  twist  or  turn  in 
five  feet  was  about  the  thing.  Those  rifles  were 
reliable  and  did  not  lacerate  the  flesh  unless  too 
much  powder  was  used. 

163 


164     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

Next  came  the  breech-loading  rifle  with  small 
charge  of  powder  and  heavy  bullet;  like  the  Win- 
chester model  '66  and  Frank  Wesson's  single 
shot.  These  guns  shot  with  remarkable  correct- 
ness at  short  range,  especially  the  Frank  Wesson 
rifle;  but  none  of  them  had  enough  velocity  to 
do  as  fine  shooting  as  is  required  in  turkey  shoot- 
ing above  75  to  100  yards.  With  me  the  .38 
calibre  Wesson  rifle  did  more  certain  work  on 
old  gobblers  than  any  other  rifle  I  have  ever 
seen  or  used,  nor  was  the  powder  charge  suf- 
ficient to  tear  the  flesh  severely,  but  it  would 
drive  the  bullet  through  two  old  gobblers. 

The  next  best  gun,  and  the  best  all-round 
shooting  gun  I  ever  used  on  turkeys  was  a  .32-20 
Winchester,  model  '73,  but  this  gun  tore  the 
flesh  badly. 

The  points  to  be  desired  in  a  turkey  rifle  are 
these:  A  bullet  that  will  kill  under  ordinary 
conditions  and  at  the  same  time  leave  a  mini- 
mum trace  through  the  bird;  and  a  flat  trajec- 
tory for  fine  shooting  at  125  or  150  yards,  as  that 
is  as  far  as  one  will  be  apt  to  risk  a  shot  at  them. 

I  found  that  the  .32  calibre  killed  as  well  as 


GUNS  I  HAVE  USED  ON  TURKEYS     165 

the  .50  calibre  -- 1  mean  the  .32-20  —  if  the  shot 
was  placed  right.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
the  skin  of  birds  is  very  thin  and  delicate;  the 
flesh  under  it,  especially  the  breast,  is  extremely 
tender  and  juicy,  and  a  rifle  bullet  passing 
through  it  with  great  velocity  will  spatter  the 
flesh  like  soft  butter,  the  bullet  having  mush- 
roomed against  the  thick,  hard  feathers,  or  even 
on  striking  the  flesh  itself. 

I  believe  the  best  rifle  that  could  be  made  for 
turkey  shooting  would  be  .30  or  .32  calibre,  with 
about  15  grains  of  powder,  and  the  weight  of  the 
bullet  reduced  as  much  as  possible  without  in- 
jury to  accuracy.  It  would  have  ample  force 
and  not  tear  the  flesh  and  give  even  greater  pene- 
tration than  the  .32-20.  A  turkey  rifle  should 
not  mushroom  its  bullets,  for,  although  the  tur- 
key possesses  remarkable  vitality,  he  is  easily 
killed  if  shot  in  the  right  place. 

As  to  shotguns,  there  is  little  choice  so  far  as 
the  shooting  is  concerned.  Any  good  modern 
choke  bored  gun  will  answer  —  the  choked  being 
greatly  to  be  preferred,  as  it  concentrates  its 
shot  —  which  is  a  desirable  quality  in  scoring  — • 


166     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

on  the  head  or  neck,  the  only  mark  for  a  shotgun 
on  a  turkey.  No.  6  is  by  all  means  the  size  shot 
for  this  purpose;  one  barrel  with  No.  6  for  the 
head,  the  other  No.  3  or  4  for  the  body,  is  the 
proper  thing. 

Wing  shooting  turkey  is  so  out  of  line  with 
my  idea  of  turkey  hunting  under  any  conditions 
that  I  have  little  to  offer  in  that  respect.  To 
see  a  big,  fine  gobbler  with  his  rich  bronze  plu- 
mage all  messed  up  by  shot  and  grime,  legs  and 
wings  all  broken  and  bloody,  dangling  about,  is 
a  disgusting  sight  to  the  true  turkey  hunter. 
The  turkey  is  not  built  or  in  any  way  adapted  to 
being  so  shot,  but  there  are  men  so  nervous  and 
excitable  that  they  cannot  still-hunt  turkeys. 
Such  men  must  be  going  all  the  time,  and  their 
only  chance  is  to  scare  up  the  birds  and  shoot 
them  on  the  wing.  They  are  not  of  the  stuff 
that  make  good  turkey  hunters,  and  they  will 
never  succeed,  no  matter  how  they  try.  They 
have  no  patience  to  wait  on  the  movement  of  a 
turkey  when  coming  to  the  call,  but  can  sit 
around  a  hotel  all  day  spinning  yarns,  talking 
politics,  and  perhaps  playing  cards  all  night. 


GUNS  I  HAVE  USED  ON  TURKEYS     167 

This  type  of  man  can  never  become  a  quiet,  con- 
templative, thoughtful  turkey  hunter. 

Unless  killed  or  wing  broken,  a  turkey  may 
receive  while  on  the  wing  a  mortal  hurt  and  yet 
be  lost,  for  it  has  such  vitality  that  it  will  prolong 
its  flight  to  such  a  distance  as  to  be  lost.  At  short 
range  turkeys  on  the  wing  are  easily  dropped" 
with  a  shotgun,  but  then  the  whole  body  is 
usually  filled  with  shot.  Hallocksays:  "If  the 
hunter  be  so  fortunate  as  to  get  within  reach 
of  a  turkey,  let  him  take  deliberate  aim  at 
the  head  if  he  has  a  rifle,  but  the  possessor  of  a 
shotgun  should  cover  the  whole  body."  To  me 
this  seems  absurd,  for  it  is  the  reverse  of  this  that 
I  would  suggest  to  successfully  kill  the  bird. 
Should  the  man  of  average  nerve  and  excitability 
take  aim  at  the  head  of  a  turkey  with  a  rifle  he 
will  miss  it.  I  have  done  it  myself  under  certain 
conditions,  and  under  ordinary  circumstances  I 
would  not  suggest  that  any  sportsman  take  such 
chances. 

The  turkey  hunter  who  uses  his  rifle  gets 
more  real  enjoyment  out  of  the  sport  than  with 
any  other  arm.  He  gets  more  chances  to  kill  the 


168     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

bird,  because  of  the  greater  killing  range  of 
the  rifle,  and  consequently  is  surer  of  his  game, 
particularly  if  he  is  a  marksman  with  a  cool 
head,  steady  hand,  and  good  vision.  If  one  de- 
sires to  be  a  first-class,  all-round  turkey  hunter, 
my  advice  is  to  employ  the  rifle,  and  when  a 
turkey  is  found,  aim  for  the  body,  and  that  part 
of  it  that  covers  the  vitals.  If  you  do  not  do 
this  you  are  likely  to  see  your  game  running 
away  as  fast  as  his  legs  can  carry  him,  for,  unless 
your  bullet  has  passed  through  his  body,  striking 
a  vital  part,  the  bird  is  likely  to  escape.  If  cir- 
cumstances are  such  that  you  cannot  procure  a 
rifle,  or  are  wedded  to  a  shotgun,  I  should  advise 
the  use  of  No.  6  shot,  and  would  recommend  aim- 
ing at  the  head  of  the  bird,  unless  they  are  young 
birds  and  quite  near  enough  to  make  sure  your 
shot.  Do  not  use  buckshot  if  you  can  procure 
any  other.  Should  you  use  No.  5  or  6  shot  and 
aim  at  the  head,  you  will  be  surprised  to  learn  at 
what  range  you  can  kill  a  turkey.  Some  hunters 
who  use  a  shotgun  prefer  No.  6  in  one  barrel  and 
No.  4  in  the  other,  using  one  for  the  head  and 
the  other  for  the  body.  The  reason  that  I  do 


GUNS  I  HAVE  USED  ON  TURKEYS     169 

not  recommend  the  use  of  buckshot  in  turkey 
hunting  is  because  the  vital  parts  of  the  turkey 
are  very  small,  and  at  forty  yards  the  chances  of 
reaching  these  parts  with  buckshot  are  slim. 
Those  who  have  tried  buckshot  at  this  range 
note  that  they  have  knocked  their  birds  over 
nearly  every  time,  but  are  surprised  to  see  them 
get  up  and  run  away.  This  never  happens  if 
the  sportsman  uses  a  good  rifle  and  places  his 
bullet  in  the  right  place. 


CHAPTER  XI 

LEARNING  TURKEY  LANGUAGE  —  WHY  DOES  THE 
GOBBLER  GOBBLE 

TO  LEARN  to  imitate  the  cry  of  a  turkey 
is  no  great  feat,  if  you  have  something 
to  call  with  and  know  the  sounds  you 
wish  to  imitate.  One  can  become  proficient  in 
the  use  of  the  call  with  reasonable  effort;  but  to 
expect  to  call  intelligently,  without  a  proper 
knowledge  of  the  interpretation  of  the  notes  pro- 
duced, is  as  absurd  as  to  read  a  foreign  language 
and  not  know  the  meaning  of  the  words.  Un- 
less you  know  the  meaning  of  the  gobble,  the 
yelp,  and  cluck,  in  all  their  variations,  you  cannot 
expect  to  use  the  turkey  language  intelligently. 
Without  such  knowledge  you  will  fail  to  interest 
the  bird  you  try  to  call,  unless  by  accident  or 
sheer  good  luck  you  brought  the  cautious  thing 
within  sight.  It  is  not  desirable,  though,  that  we 
depend  upon  luck;  one  should  prefer  skill  in 

170 


LEARNING  TURKEY  LANGUAGE      171 

calling,  so  that  he  can  at  all  times  depend  with  a 
degree  of  certainty  on  accomplishing  his  purpose 
of  fooling  the  bird.  I  was  once  hunting  with  a 
friend,  and  as  we  sat  together  by  White  Rock 
Creek  calling  an  old  gobbler;  two  or  three  other 
hunters,  at  different  points  but  within  hearing, 
were  also  calling,  keeping  the  turkey  continually 
gobbling.  My  friend  asked  why  I  did  not  call 
oftener,  fearing  the  others  would  decoy  the  tur- 
key away  from  us.  I  told  him  that  I  had  already 
put  in  my  call  and  the  gobbler  understood  it,  and 
the  other  fellows  were  calling  by  simply  making 
sounds  with  no  apparent  meaning  or  reason,  and 
when  the  gobbler  got  ready  he  would  come  to 
us.  I  then  took  out  my  pipe  and  had  a  smoke. 
Meantime  the  calling  by  the  other  hunters  was 
going  on  at  a  terrific  rate,  and  the  gobbler  was 
apparently  tickling  their  ambition  with  his  con- 
stant rattle  and  strut.  Ere  long  he  came  di- 
rectly to  us  and  we  shot  him. 

I  have  known  men  who  could  in  practice  yelp 
almost  as  well  as  the  turkey,  but  when  attempt- 
ing to  call  the  wild  bird  would  do  little  better 
than  the  veriest  novice.  If  such  persons'  con- 


172     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

fidence  and  ability  to  call  did  not  fail  them, 
their  judgment  would,  and  the  opportunity  would 
be  spoiled  by  some  absurd  act. 

It  is  not  so  much  what  one  should  do  in  call- 
ing, but  what  one  should  not  do,  as  it  is  better 
to  leave  things  undone  unless  done  right.  This 
subject  requires  the  most  minute  and  careful 
knowledge  of  turkey  lore,  and  will  require  much 
of  your  patience  before  you  are  proficient,  and  I 
trust  you  will  find  in  these  lines  more  for  your 
contemplation  than  you  might  suspect. 

The  conditions  under  which  you  call  are  daily 
varied,  while  the  methods  to  be  employed  each 
time  are  quite  complex.  In  spring  the  males 
are  gobbling,  and  the  love-call  of  the  hen  is  then 
the  one  to  use.  In  the  fall  and  winter,  when  the 
turkeys  are  in  flocks  and  do  not  gobble,  this  not 
being  the  love  season,  you  do  not  then  make 
love-call,  but  such  as  suits  the  occasion  and  the 
temper  of  the  game. 

First,  as  to  gobbling:  We  will  analyze  that 
feature,  as  it  involves  great  interest  to  the 
hunter.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  more  people  hunt  the 
turkey  during  the  gobbling  season  than  at  any 


LEARNING  TURKEY  LANGUAGE      173 

other  time,  and  strange  to  say  get  fewer  turkeys, 
simply  from  the  fact  that  the  call  is  not  under- 
stood. 

Why  do  they  go  in  quest  of  turkeys  at  that 
season  ?  For  the  reason  that  they  are  much  more 
easily  located,  as  the  gobbling  of  the  turkey  in- 
dicates its  whereabouts,  removing  the  necessity 
of  spending  much  time  in  search  of  them;  hence, 
were  it  not  for  the  gobbling  many  hunters  would 
never  attempt  to  hunt  the  birds,  knowing  too 
well  it  would  be  useless. 

The  first  and  most  important  thing  that  you 
should  impress  on  your  mind  is,  that  the  turkey- 
cocks  gobble  for  a  reason. 

Why  does  the  gobbler  stand  in  one  spot  and 
make  a  great  ado?  Every  turkey,  whether  born 
in  Florida  or  Mexico,  does  the  same,  and  at 
the  same  period  of  the  year,  because  his  gobbling 
and  strutting  is  to  let  the  hens  know  where  he  is, 
and  if  he  keeps  it  up  every  hen  in  hearing  will 
come  to  him.  The  gobble  of  the  male  turkey 
is  his  love-call.  In  the  early  spring,  when  na- 
ture begins  to  unfold  its  latent  energies  and  de- 
velop its  dormant  resources  for  creating  new  life, 


174     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

the  old  gobbler  feels  its  impulses,  and  is  not 
slow  in  asserting  his  place  as  leader  of  the  grand 
aggregation  of  noisy  choristers  that  make  the 
deep  solitudes  of  the  forests  ring  to  the  echo. 
From  some  tall  pine  or  cypress  he  loudly  pro- 
claims the  approach  of  dawn.  "  Gil-obble-obble- 
obble,  quit,  quit  cut,"  comes  the  love-call  from  his 
excited  throat,  so  suddenly  and  unexpectedly 
that  all  the  smaller  species  within  a  hundred 
yards  are  dazed  with  fright.  I  often  thought 
that,  if  he  possessed  any  faculty  of  humor,  he 
must  be  greatly  amused  at  the  commotion  he 
creates  all  by  himself. 

He  stands  erect  on  his  high  perch,  peering  in  all 
directions  to  determine  the  next  thing  to  do,  or  to 
ascertain  the  result  of  that  already  done,  and  it 
often  happens  that  this  is  the  last  and  only  gobble 
he  will  produce  that  morning,  owing  to  its  being 
accidental.  But  he  will  stand  upon  the  limb  of 
his  roost  quietly  looking  about,  and  after  preen- 
ing his  plumage  for  a  few  moments,  and  seeing 
that  no  enemy  lurks  near,  he  stoops,  spreading 
his  great  curved  wings,  and  silently  as  a  summer's 
breeze  leaves  the  tree  and  sails  to  the  earth  fifty 


LEARNING  TURKEY  LANGUAGE      175 

to  seventy -five  yards  from  his  perch.  He  stands 
perfectly  still  some  moments  until  satisfied  all  is 
well,  then  he  carefully  places  the  tip  of  one  wing 
on  the  other  across  his  back  once  or  twice,  and 
walks  slowly  away  to  feed.  A  few  mornings 
later,  if  the  air  be  crisp,  clear,  and  not  too  cold, 
he  will  gobble  lustily  many  times  before  he  flies 
down,  for  the  first  warm  days  of  spring  begin  to 
arouse  his  animal  instincts  and  he  longs  for  the 
society  of  his  mates. 

He  is  now  in  the  prime  of  turkeyhood,  in  his 
finest  feather  and  flesh.  He  is  fat  and  plump, 
hence  this  is  the  stage  at  which  the  hunter,  most 
of  all,  prefers  to  bag  him;  but  he  is  no  easy  game 
to  secure  just  now. 

If  he  ever  were  afraid  of  his  own  voice,  step,  or 
shadow,  it  is  at  this  time;  but  the  forest  is  ringing 
with  a  din  of  bird  song,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
restrain  his  impulse  to  "  gil-obble-obble-obble." 
Making  one  or  two  quick  steps,  he  raises  his 
head  and  says  "put-put,"  then  stands  per- 
fectly still,  his  great  hazel  eyes  scanning  every 
leaf  or  bird  that  moves. 

Why  does  he  gobble?     It  is  the  call  of  nature 


176     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

to  break  up  his  loneliness  and  secure  the  society 
of  his  mates.  Turkeys  do  not  mate  in  pairs,  they 
are  polygamous,  loving  many  wives. 

I  wish  to  direct  attention  to  the  common  and 
erroneous  belief,  even  among  expert  turkey 
hunters,  that  it  is  the  call-note  of  the  hen  that 
brings  the  sexes  together.  This  is  incorrect. 
It  is  the  call  of  the  male.  It  was  after  years  of 
study  that  I  discovered  this  fact,  which,  once 
plain  to  my  mind,  assured  my  success  as  a  tur- 
key hunter.  I  found  that  the  gobbler  was  doing 
the  same  thing  I  was  doing;  I  was  struggling  with 
all  my  ability  and  tact  to  draw  him  out,  while 
he  was  playing  the  same  game  on  me;  it  was  a 
question  of  who  had  the  greater  patience.  If  I 
remained  and  insisted  on  his  approach,  he  would 
yie^d  and  come  to  me.  Here  is  his  customary 
method :  At  the  very  break  of  day,  the  weather 
being  favorable,  he  begins  to  gobble  in  the  tree 
in  which  he  is  roosting.  The  gobbling  is  pro- 
duced at  very  irregular  intervals,  sometimes 
with  long,  silent  spaces  between,  at  others  in 
rapid  succession.  Some  turkeys  gobble  a  great 
deal  more  than  others.  Some  will  gobble  but 


LEARNING  TURKEY  LANGUAGE      177 

once  or  twice  before  they  come  down,  and  gob- 
ble no  more  that  day;  others  will  not  gobble 
until  they  fly  down,  and  then  keep  it  up  for 
hours.  Some  will  gobble  all  day  from  sunrise 
to  sunset.  All  these  various  idiosyncrasies  the 
knowledge  of  the  hunter  must  meet.  Some  will 
come  to  the  yelp  or  cluck  at  the  first  imitation 
of  the  sound,  while  others  will  take  hours  to  make 
up  their  minds  whether  to  come  at  all.  Take 
it  all  together,  the  gobbler  has  most  obstinate 
ways,  purposely  or  not;  the  wily  hunter  must 
bring  all  his  faculties  to  bear  if  he  would  outwit 
him. 

If  the  old  turkey  begins  to  gobble  on  the  roost 
at  the  early  dawn  and  to  strut  (although  all  do 
not  strut  in  the  trees),  he  will  gobble,  watch,  and 
wait,  hoping  he  may  catch  sight  of  the  female  — 
located  by  her  responsive  yelp  or  cluck  • —  that 
may  be  roosting  in  a  tree  near  him,  or  one  ap- 
proaching on  foot  or  flying  toward  him  through 
the  timber.  If  not  so  fortunate,  he  will  usually 
fly  to  the  ground,  scan  the  surroundings  with  his 
keen  eye  a  moment  or  so,  then  drop  his  wings, 
spread  his  semicircular  tail,  strut,  and  gobble. 


178     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

Then  he  lets  his  dress  slowly  down  as  the  spas- 
modic paroxysm  subsides,  listens,  and  looks, 
gobbles  a  time  or  two,  listens  again,  and  struts, 
and  so  on.  If  he  sees  no  hen  or  hears  no  sound 
resembling  that  which  he  desires,  he  begins  to 
calmly  walk  toward  his  feeding  grounds,  gobbling 
at  long  intervals;  he  then  usually  stops  for  the 
day.  This  applies  to  the  first  weeks  of  the  gob- 
bling season,  and  he  is  quite  easily  called  then, 
as  it  is  too  early  for  the  hen  to  crave  his  atten- 
tions; but  later  it  all  changes. 

The  hens  seek  his  presence  as  the  procreative 
impulses  begin  to  stir  them.  The  gobbler  then 
will  take  up  a  chosen  territory  in  a  certain  piece  of 
woods, the  most  favorable  to  required  conditions, 
and  roost  in  the  vicinity  nearly  every  night, 
that  is,  in  case  he  has  secured  a  fair  harem  of 
six  or  eight  hens ;  but  if  he  is  not  so  fortunate  he 
will  run  all  about  the  country,  having  no  special 
place  to  spend  the  night.  But  now  we  are 
contemplating  the  gobbler  who  has  been  so  fortu- 
nate as  to  secure  a  fair-sized  harem,  and  has  con- 
fined himself  to  one  locality,  in  which  he  will 
peaceably  and  contentedly  remain  all  the  gob- 


LEARNING  TURKEY  LANGUAGE      179 

bling  season.  I  have  heard  them  gobble  late 
in  June  when  they  have  one  or  two  hens  with 
them,  who  evidently  have  had  their  nests  and 
eggs  destroyed  and  are  again  associating  with 
the  males.  It  is  usual  for  the  hen  to  visit  the 
gobbler  every  morning,  staying  in  his  company 
only  for  a  short  time;  and  when  she  departs  he 
follows  her  slowly  a  few  steps,  then  begins  to 
strut  and  gobble  violently  until  she  is  out  of 
sight.  He  knows  his  complement  of  hens,  and 
does  not  cease  to  strut  and  gobble  until  all  hens 
come  to  him;  he  then  quits  gobbling  and  strutting 
and  steals  away  to  feed  on  tender  leaves,  buds,  and 
grasshoppers.  At  such  times  the  hunter,  by  pip- 
ing seductive  quavers,  may  tickle  his  vanity  and 
stir  anew  his  passion,  when  he  will  stop  in  his 
hunt  for  food  and  commence  to  gobble,  strut,  and 
gyrate  enough  to  exhaust  your  patience,  but  if 
you  call  properly  and  are  cool  and  quiet  he  will 
come. 

The  turkey's  gobble  is  easily  heard  at  a  dis- 
tance of  from  one  to  two  miles  if  the  air  is  still 
and  clear. 

These  are  the  rules  that  apply  to  turkeys  in 


180     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

general,  but  there  are  exceptions;  for  instance, 
some  old  gobblers  never  secure  the  favor  of  even 
one  hen  during  the  whole  season,  but  will  run 
and  prowl  the  country  over,  seeking  such  stray 
females  as  may  be  met  with,  even  visiting  the 
grangers'  domestic  flocks,  which  is  not  an  unfre- 
quent  circumstance  in  settled  neighborhoods. 
These  solitary  old  birds  when  met  with  are  easy 
prey  to  the  expert  caller. 


CHAFER  XII 

ON  CALLERS  AND  CALLING 

THERE  are   in  use  by  all  hunters  who 
still-hunt  the  turkey,  instruments  used 
for  imitating  the  call-notes  of  this  bird ; 
a  few  lines  on  these  useful  implements  will  not 
be  amiss  here. 

The  box  or  trough  call,  the  splinter  and  slate, 
the  leaf  call,  all  have  their  merits,  and  can  be 
made  to  imitate  the  different  notes  of  the  hens 
and  young  gobblers.  The  leaf  call  is  simply  a 
tender  leaf  from  particular  trees,  held  between 
the  lips,  and  when  well  executed,  the  call  with  it 
is  good.  The  box  call  is  said  to  make  excellent 
imitation  of  the  hen  call,  but  I  have  yet  to  see 
one  that  satisfied  me.  The  box  call  is  made  by 
taking  a  piece  of  wood,  preferably  poplar,  or  some 
other  soft  wood,  about  four  inches  long,  two 
inches  deep,  by  one  and  a  quarter  thick.  Mor- 
tise a  square  hole  in  this  block,  leaving  the  ends 

181 


182     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

one  half  inch  thick,  one  side  one  eighth,  the  other 
quite  thin.  The  mortise  is  one  and  a  half  inches 
deep.  A  piece  of  slate  some  four  inches  long  by 
half  an  inch  wide  is  drawn  across  the  thin  edge  of 
this  box  in  various  positions,  and  one  skilled  in  the 
use  of  this  call  can  obtain  very  good  results.  The 
call  most  in  use  by  the  backwoods  turkey  hunters 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  one  that  causes  the 
death  of  more  turkeys  than  all  other  call  devices 
put  together,  is  simply  the  hollow  wing  bone  from 
the  second  joint  of  a  hen  turkey,  with  both  ends 
cut  off  to  allow  free  passage  of  air.  One  end  is  held 
with  the  lips  in  such  a  manner  that  the  inside  por- 
tion of  the  lips  covers  the  end  of  the  bone.  The 
breath  is  then  drawn  in  sharply,  and  when  one 
is  skilled  in  its  use  the  different  call-notes  of  the 
hen  turkey  can  be  produced  perfectly.  There  are 
several  other  devices  much  after  this  order,  but 
I  have  never  found  use  for  any  of  them;  in  fact 
their  defects  prompted  me  to  invent  a  call  of 
my  own,  which  I  prefer.  First,  get  the  smaller 
bone  from  the  wing  of  a  wild  hen  turkey:  the 
radius  of  the  forearm.  Hallock  says  the  larger 
bone,  but  he  is  wrong.  The  bone  should  be  thor- 


ON    CALLERS   AND    CALLING  183 

oughly  cleansed  of  all  its  marrow.  After  cutting 
off  nearly  one  half  inch  from  each  end  of  the  bone, 
the  ends  are  made  quite  smooth  with  a  file,  all 
rough  surface  removed,  and  the  bone  finished 
with  fine  sandpaper  or  emery.  The  round  end 
of  this  bone  is  packed  and  glued  into  the  end  of  a 
piece  of  reed  cane  joint  two  inches  long  and 
three-eighths  in  diameter.  Then  a  nice  nickel- 
plated  ferrule  or  thimble  is  fitted  on  the  cane  to 
prevent  splitting,  and  the  sloping  end  is  wrapped 


Sun 

CMC 

-^. 

NICKU. 

JORDAN'S  TURKEY  CALL 


with  silk.  Next,  get  another  joint  of  cane  that 
the  first  piece  will  just  fit  into  and  glue  them 
tightly  together;  then  cut  off  until  the  right  tone 
is  produced.  The  flat  end  of  the  bone  is  used  as 
the  mouth-piece.  The  end  of  the  bone  that  is  in- 
serted in  the  cane  is  wrapped  with  tissue  paper 
wet  with  glue  and  pushed  firmly  into  the  cane 
three  quarters  of  an  inch,  and  care  must  be  taken 
to  make  this  call  air-tight  at  the  joints;  when  the 
glue  dries,  it  will  be  strong,  air-tight,  and  durable. 


184     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

The  bands  or  ferrules  are  intended  to  make  the 
instrument  doubly  strong,  as  well  as  to  improve 
its  looks.  It  is  a  tedious  job  to  make  a  good 
call,  but  when  you  have  one  properly  made,  it 
will  last  a  great  while,  and  I  think  this  particular 
call  is  the  best  in  the  world. 

There  is  one  objection  to  the  box,  slate,  or 
similar  calls:  they  make  quite  a  noise  near  by 
but  can  not  be  heard  any  distance.  The  instru- 
ment I  make  can  be  heard  a  half  or  three  quarters 
of  a  mile  away. 

This  call  is  used  by  taking  the  flat  bone  end 
between  the  lips  and  by  measured  sucking  motion 
the  notes  are  produced.  The  cluck  is  produced 
by  placing  the  tip  of  the  tongue  on  the  end  of  the 
mouth-piece,  and  giving  a  sudden  jerk  and  suck. 
This,  according  to  my  opinion,  is  the  most  nat- 
ural cluck  that  was  ever  made  by  any  instru- 
ment, and  it  can  be  modulated  so  as  to  seduce 
or  alarm  at  the  will  of  the  operator. 

It  is  necessary  to  practise  the  use  of  a  caller 
until  proficiency  is  attained,  the  same  as  you 
would  do  in  playing  a  flute  or  violin.  Calling, 
in  my  opinion,  is  the  most  important  thing  to 


ON    CALLERS   AND    CALLING  185 

be  considered  when  in  quest  of  the  turkey,  and 
the  knowledge  of  how  to  do  it  is  difficult  to  im- 
part to  others. 

There  are  four  distinct  calls  of  the  wild  turkey 
one  should  become  familiar  with  to  become  an 
expert  turkey  hunter;  these  are  the  call  of  the 
young  hen,  the  old  hen,  the  young  gobbler,  and 
the  gobble  of  the  old  male  bird.  The  latter  is 
almost  impossible  to  learn,  and  I  have  seen  but 
two  or  three  men  in  my  life  who  could  imitate  the 
gobble.  The  sound  is  made  with  the  throat,  and 
I  know  of  no  way  it  can  be  taught.  The  notes  of 
the  hen  turkey  consist  of  a  variety  of  quaver- 
ing sounds  such  as  are  given  by  the  domestic 
fowl,  but  which  require  study  and  practice,  with 
the  best  devised  caller,  to  imitate.  The  plain 
yelp  or  "keow-keow"  are  the  chief  notes  to  learn, 
and  once  mastered  and  employed  in  concert 
with  the  cluck,  will  usually  be  all  that  is  neces- 
sary in  calling  turkey,  be  it  a  flock  of  scattered 
individuals  or  an  old  gobbler  (in  the  gobbling 
season),  but  it  would  avail  nothing  on  the  lat- 
ter at  any  other  time.  "  Keow-keow-keow,"  or 
"keow-kee-kee,"  "cut,"  "cut" — these  are  the 


186     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

variety  of  notes,  and  each  has  its  meaning, 
however  singular  that  may  appear.  The 
turkey  has  no  song,  and  the  notes  it  employs 
are  either  conversational,  call,  distress,  or  alarm 
notes. 

Early  morning,  when  they  are  dropping  down 
from  their  roost,  is  the  best  time  to  study  their 
language  as  well  as  their  habits.  If  you  go  near 
a  flock  of  tame  turkeys  and  begin  to  yelp  and 
cluck,  they  will  reply  and  keep  it  up  as  long  as 
you  do,  so  you  can  soon  learn  their  language. 
If  the  turkeys  be  wild  ones,  keep  well  out  of 
sight,  for  they  will  stand  no  familiarity.  I 
am  not,  however,  a  stickler  about  keeping  out  of 
sight  when  calling.  I  prefer  to  sit  in  front  of  a 
tree  that  is  on  the  side  from  which  the  turkey  is 
expected  to  approach,  rather  than  to  get  behind 
it.  I  sit  in  front  of  the  tree  in  such  a  manner 
that  a  turkey  with  the  keenest  eye  in  the  world 
will  not  identify  me,  if  properly  fixed,  clothed, 
and  motionless.  The  explanation  of  this  is  that 
the  gobbler  is  not  looking  for  a  person,  but  for 
another  turkey;  and  as  it  can  think  of  but  one 
thing  at  a  time,  it  sees  nothing  that  does  not 


ON   CALLERS   AND    CALLING  187 

resemble  that  which  it  is  in  quest  of;  but  if  you 
move,  its  keen  eye  will  quickly  detect  you. 

The  turkeys  seem  to  have  no  special  power  of 
smell,  so  if  the  hunter's  clothes  are  gray  or  drab, 
he  may  sit  at  the  base  of  a  tree,  and  by  keeping 
quiet,  the  turkey  will  many  times  come  within 
ten  or  twenty  feet,  and,  although  looking  directly 
at  him,  will  fail  to  make  him  out  and  walk  lei- 
surely away. 

I  once  had  a  flock  of  wild  turkeys  come  very 
near  me,  and  some  of  them  jumped  up  and  stood 
on  the  log  I  was  resting  my  back  against;  one 
hen  was  within  three  feet  of  me,  and  she  stood 
for  a  few  minutes  purring  and  looking  me  over, 
finally  leaping  off.  Then  a  young  gobbler  came 
in  front  and  took  a  good  look  at  me.  He 
seemed  to  have  a  suspicion  that  I  was  not  a 
stump,  for  he  walked  back  a  little  and  stopped 
to  meditate.  Not  being  satisfied  with  his  first 
investigation,  he  came  up  again  and  took  a  better 
look;  after  satisfying  himself  he  walked  leisurely 
away.  He  looked  so  quizzically  at  me  that  I 
could  scarcely  refrain  from  laughing.  At  the 
same  time  these  inquisitive  birds  were  looking 


188     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

me  over,  my  rifle  was  trained  on  an  immense 
gobbler  within  eighty  yards  strutting  in  plain 
view.  Upon  him  my  attention  was  chiefly  fas- 
tened, and  in  a  few  minutes  the  old  fellow  came 
to  bag.  A  dead  grass  colored  suit  is  not  so  good 
for  a  turkey  hunting  suit  as  one  gray  or  brown. 

If  the  game  you  seek  be  an  old  gobbler,  and  the 
time  spring,  you  will  employ  the  call  fully  as 
much  as  when  calling  the  scattered  brood  in  fall 
or  winter.  I  generally  use  the  plain,  quaint, 
easy  measured  yelp  or  quaver  and  cluck  of  the 
female;  this  same  call  has  a  hundred  variations, 
but  it  is  not  necessary  that  you  employ  all  of  them . 
The  simple  "cluck-cluck-cluck "  and  now  and 
then  plain  "keow-keow,"  when  properly  done,  is 
generally  effective.  I  have  called  as  loud  as  I 
could,  so  as  to  be  heard  a  mile  away,  while  an 
old  gobbler  was  standing  near  enough  for  me  to 
see  the  light  of  his  eyes  without  alarming  him. 
Again  I  have  called  very  low,  just  as  a  test,  with 
the  same  result.  Sometimes  the  old  bird  is  un- 
usually cautious;  then  the  less  calling  the  better; 
then,  after  you  have  engaged  the  attention  of  the 
turkey  so  that  it  will  stop  and  gobble  and  strut, 


ON    CALLERS   AND    CALLING  189 

the  less  you  call  him  the  better,  for  the  reason 
that  in  gobbling  and  strutting  it  is  using  all  its 
own  persuasive  power  to  draw  you  to  him, 
thinking  you  are  a  hen.  Under  these  conditions 
so  long  as  you  continue  to  call  or  reply  he  will 
remain  and  gobble,  and  insist  on  your  coming  to 
him.  But  if  you  have  commanded  his  attention 
and  stop  calling  and  wait,  he  will  make  up  his 
mind  to  come  toyou,ashe  has  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  hen  is  indifferent  to  his  company 
and  is  moving  away  from  him ;  this  will  excite  his 
anxiety  and  cause  him  to  make  haste  toward  you. 
Under  such  circumstances,  and  they  occur  very 
often,  the  hunter  will  very  soon  note,  after  he  has 
quit  calling,  the  gobbler  will  gobble  oftener, 
more  furiously,  and  strut  with  greater  vigor. 
This  is  the  time  when  most  turkey  hunters  make 
a  fatal  mistake,  for  if  you  call  after  the  gob- 
bler starts  toward  you,  he  will  stop  a  while  at 
that  point,  and  go  through  all  the  maneuvers 
he  has  been  worrying  you  with  for  some  time, 
march  back  and  forth  to  his  recent  stand  and 
give  you  another  hour  or  two  of  waiting,  or 
perhaps  he  will  go  away  to  return  no  more. 


190     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

Do  not  make  this  mistake,  but  keep  still,  wait, 
and  watch.  Let  the  gobbler  do  the  gobbling 
and  strutting,  and  you  do  nothing  but  keep  your 
eye  on  your  rifle  sights  and  watch  for  his  ap- 
pearance. When  he  suddenly  stops  gobbling 
and  strutting  look  sharp  and  keep  your  gun 
leveled  in  the  direction  from  which  he  is  ex- 
pected, but  by  no  means  have  your  gun  in  such  a 
position  that  you  will  have  to  move  it  after  the 
turkey  is  in  sight.  Some  men  have  a  habit  of 
moving  their  guns  about,  although  they  have 
their  heads  and  bodies  hidden  and  quiet.  They 
might  as  well  get  up  and  say  "  hello." 

If  a  gobbler  stops,  and  gobbles  and  struts  in 
one  place  some  time,  while  you  are  calling  him, 
this  is  good  evidence  that  he  will  come  to  you, 
if  you  have  but  patience  and  keep  quiet;  nine 
hunters  out  of  ten,  however,  take  the  opposite 
view  of  it,  and  for  the  lack  of  good  understanding 
of  the  turkey,  and  of  patience,  get  up  and  go 
home  at  the  very  time  when  success  would  have 
crowned  their  efforts.  Now,  if  a  hen  has  gone  to 
the  gobbler,  as  will  often  occur,  and  they  are  out 
of  your  sight  in  the  brush,  you  will  know  this  to 


•a 


.0 

1 


ON   CALLERS   AND    CALLING  191 

be  the  case  by  the  long  interval  between  gobbles ; 
if  it  be  fifteen  to  twenty  minutes,  you  may  be 
certain  a  hen  is  with  him. 

You  cannot  always  be  sure  that  a  cessation  of 
gobbling  is  for  the  purpose  of  attending  the  hen 
or  of  coming  to  you,  but  you  will  soon  find  out  if 
you  wait,  as  the  turkey  is  sure  to  strut  and 
gobble  near  the  place  after  the  caress  is  over; 
this  has  been  my  experience  hundreds  of  times; 
in  fact  it  is  characteristic  and  habitual,  and  it 
rarely  happens  otherwise.  Here  is  an  instance: 
Two  young  men  accompanied  me  once  to  a  creek 
near  the  margin  of  a  large  prairie  in  Texas  to  see 
me  call  an  old  gobbler.  At  the  dawn  of  day  the 
gobbler  broke  forth  into  a  lively  gobbling,  when 
we  proceeded  to  an  old  fallen  pine  log  to  call 
him.  Having  waited  for  him  to  fly  down  from 
his  roost,  I  began  the  regulation  series  of  calls, 
clucks,  etc.  The  turkey  was  a  great  gobbler 
and  did  his  share  of  it,  but  he  would  not  come 
immediately  to  the  call.  After  a  while  one  of 
the  boys  remarked  that  he  heard  a  hen  yelping 
near  the  gobbler,  and  then  all  gobbling  ceased, 
and  the  boys  remarked  he  had  gone  off  with  the 


192     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

hen.  I  said,  "No,  he  is  there  yet."  This  si- 
lence lasted  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  while  the 
mosquitoes  were  covering  the  faces  of  the  boys; 
but  they  were  bent  on  seeing  the  play  out  and 
would  squirm  and  rub  off  the  pests,  then  listen 
and  look,  as  they  lay  prone  on  the  pine  straw 
and  peered  over  the  log.  Once  in  a  while  I 
would  yelp,  but  no  response  came  until  the 
gobbler's  attention  to  the  hen  had  ceased;  he 
then  began  to  gobble  again  as  vigorously  as 
though  nothing  had  occured.  Then  I  began 
calling  again,  but  he  would  not  come  to  me,  and 
soon  another  hen  came  flying  and  lighted  in  a 
tree  near  him,  and  a  moment  or  two  after  flew 
down  to  him.  This  caused  another  long  wait. 
When  through  with  the  second  hen  there  was 
another  long  strutting  and  then  another  hen 
paid  him  a  visit.  By  this  time  the  boys  had  be- 
come impatient,  and  were  anxious  to  go  home; 
the  mosquitoes  were  biting  them  severely  and 
their  stomachs  were  craving  nourishment;  so 
was  mine,  but  I  knew  what  I  was  about,  and  in  a 
low  whisper  remarked:  "Boys,  if  you  can  en- 
dure it  no  longer  we  will  go  home,  but  it  is  hard 


ON    CALLERS   AND    CALLING  193 

to  have  come  this  far  before  daylight,  six  miles, 
and  have  such  a  fine  gobbler  within  our  grasp, 
then  give  it  up  and  go  home  without  him." 

"Oh,  well,"  both  said  in  a  whisper,  "if  you 
think  you  will  get  him,  we  will  stay  all  day." 

"That  is  all  I  ask,"  I  replied.  "On  these 
terms  he  goes  home  with  us." 

By  this  time  the  gobbler  had  finished  his 
attention  to  the  third  hen  and  was  gobbling 
furiously  in  the  same  spot.  I  began  to  call  again 
and  the  gobbler  responded  lustily.  Having, 
given  him  a  few  well-meant  calls,  I  put  the  caller 
in  my  pocket.  Seeing  this  move,  one  of  the 
boys  asked  me  if  I  was  going  to  give  up.  "No," 
I  replied,  "it  is  his  turn  to  parley  and  he  will  come 
now  if  no  other  hen  comes  to  him,  so  you  fellows 
keep  still  as  death,  but  keep  a  careful  watch. 

Very  soon,  after  a  series  of  rapid  and  excited 
gobbling,  all  was  still.  My  rifle  got  into  posi- 
tion, and  I  whispered  to  the  boys  to  peer  over 
the  log,  but  to  keep  their  heads  still,  as  the  gob- 
bler was  coming  and  would  soon  be  in  sight. 
The  woods  had  been  burned  and  the  low  scrub 
in  our  region  was  black  and  charred,  save  small 


194     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

spots  that  had  escaped  the  fire.  I  soon  saw  the 
white  top  of  the  old  gobbler's  head  stealing 
slowly  through  the  dead  brush  a  hundred  yards 
away,  but  the  boys  could  not  see  him  until  he 
walked  upon  a  small  mound  some  three  feet 
in  height,  that  brought  his  whole  form  above  the 
dead  bushes.  His  feathers  were  all  down,  lying 
close  to  his  body,  and  his  long  beard  hung  low; 
a  noble  bird  he  was.  The  most  thrilling  and 
picturesque  object  to  my  eye  is  the  long  beard  of 
the  turkey;  just  as  the  big  horns  of  a  buck  are  to 
the  deer  hunter.  In  a  low  whisper  I  asked  the 
boys  if  they  saw  him.  "Yes,  yes,"  both  an- 
swered in  a  trembling  whisper.  Then  the  rifle 
cracked  and  the  bird  sprang  into  the  air  and  fell 
back  dead.  The  two  boys,  wild  with  delight, 
sprang  to  their  feet  and  went  crashing  through 
the  burned  underbrush  to  get  hold  of  the  fallen 
turkey.  One  of  the  young  men,  quite  a  hunter, 
remarked:  "That  beats  all  the  maneuvering 
with  a  gobbler  I  have  ever  seen  and  was  well 
worth  the  long  ride  to  witness."  So  presenting 
him  with  the  big  twenty-two  pound  bird,  we 
went  home. 


ON   CALLERS  AND    CALLING  195 

As  soon  as  possible  select  a  place  to  call  from. 
To  a  novice  there  is  no  special  rule  by  which  one 
can  at  all  times  be  governed  in  calling  old  gobblers. 
Each  bird  is  possessed  of  some  pecularity  differ- 
ent from  its  neighbor,  and  all  individual  varia- 
tions the  hunter  must  meet  with  good  judgment. 
When  out  very  early  in  the  morning  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  turkeys,  get  some  elevated  position,  a  ridge 
if  possible,  and,  as  the  dawn  is  breaking,  listen  for 
the  gobble.  The  first  sounds  one  is  apt  to  hear 
are  the  hooting  of  the  owls ;  the  next,  as  the  light 
grows  apace,  is  the  note  of  the  cardinal,  found  in 
all  southern  woodlands.  As  a  roseate  glow  be- 
gins to  replace  the  gray  dawn,  one  will  hear  the 
"  gil-obble-obble-obble."  It  may  be  within  one 
hundred  yards  of  you  or  perhaps  a  mile  away. 
You  should  wait  until  the  turkey  gobbles  again 
to  be  certain  of  his  direction,  then  make  all  haste 
to  him,  and  get  as  near  as  you  wish  before  he 
flies  down  from  his  roost.  When  within  one 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  gobbler,  stop, 
and  be  careful  lest  he  sees  you,  as  his  ever  watch- 
ful eyes  look  everywhere,  especially  at  things  on 
the  ground. 


196     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

As  soon  as  possible  select  a  place  to  call  from. 
To  a  novice  an  old  treetop  or  log  is  best,  but  to 
me  the  front  of  a  tree  is  preferable,  with  an  open 
space  in  front  that  the  gobbler  may  come  into 
to  be  shot.  But  whatever  the  place  selected, 
get  into  position  as  soon  as  possible,  and  let  it 
always  be  an  attitude  that  will  not  cramp  you 
should  you  have  to  remain  a  long  time,  and  where 
you  can  have  easy  action  for  your  arms  and  gun. 
That  is  why  I  prefer  the  side  of  a  tree  next  to 
the  game. 

If  the  gobbler  is  still  gobbling  after  you  have 
seated  yourself,  sit  quietly  until  he  flies  down; 
that  is  best.  But  if  you  cluck  or  yelp  to  him 
in  the  tree,  let  it  be  but  once  or  twice  to  attract 
attention  and  no  more;  no  matter  how  much  he 
gobbles,  you  must  keep  still  until  he  leaves  his 
roost,  and  even  then  wait  a  few  moments  for  him 
to  gobble  or  strut,  which  he  is  sure  to  do  on  reach- 
ing the  ground,  after  taking  a  look  around. 
After  this  you  can  give  him  a  cluck  or  yelp,  or 
several  of  them,  no  matter  how  many,  provided 
they  are  well  delivered.  If  you  are  not  yet  an 
expert  at  calling,  best  make  as  few  calls  as  pos- 


ON    CALLERS  AND   CALLING  197 

sible;  for  he  will  surely  reply  by  either  gobbling 
or  strutting,  or  both.  Do  not  be  in  a  hurry,  for 
generally  he  is  in  no  hurry,  but  has  all  day  to 
worry  you,  and  will  surely  do  it  if  you  continue 
calling  after  you  have  said  enough.  If  you  de- 
sire to  get  your  shot  at  the  gobbler  as  early  as 
possible,  call  as  little  as  you  can  after  you  have 
got  him  interested.  If  you  continue  to  yelp 
every  time  he  gobbles,  he  will  stop  in  one  place 
and  gobble  anywhere  from  two  to  six  hours,  ex- 
hausting all  your  patience  and  temper. 

In  selecting  a  place  to  call  from,  there  is  one 
caution  that  should  never  be  forgotten:  never 
get  behind  a  tree  so  that  you  will  have  to  look 
from  one  side  to  point  the  gun ;  the  turkey  is  sure 
to  see  you  and  run  away  before  you  can  shoot. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

CALLING    UP   THE   LOVELORN    GOBBLER 

THERE  is  a  wide  difference  between  the 
old  gobbler  and  the  young  gobbler,  and 
the  tactics  to  be  employed  in  hunting 
them  are  quite  different.  At  two  years  old 
he  can  be  distinguished  by  his  beard,  which  is 
then  about  five  inches  in  length,  the  tip  hav- 
ing a  burned  appearance;  his  spurs  are  about 
five  eighths  of  an  inch  long,  are  not  pointed, 
while  the  average  weight  of  the  bird  is  about  six- 
teen to  eighteen  pounds.  At  three  years  this 
burned  appearance  disappears  and  the  beard  is 
seven  or  eight  inches  long,  straight,  black,  and 
glossy,  the  spurs  being  an  inch  or  more  and 
pointed.  The  bird  may  now  be  considered  full 
grown,  and  weighs  from  nineteen  to  twenty -two 
pounds.  Henceforth  there  is  no  way  I  know  of  to 
tell  his  age.  He  continues  to  grow  for  several 

198 


THE  LOVELORN  GOBBLER        199 

years,  taking  on  fat  as  he  gets  older,  while  the 
beard  will  attain  to  a  length  of  twelve  to  thirteen 
inches,  when  it  wears  off  at  the  tip  on  account  of 
dragging  on  the  ground  while  the  bird  feeds. 
But  the  beard  does  not  indicate  the  size  of  the 
turkey,  as  some  very  small  gobblers  have  ex- 
tremely long  ones.  The  largest  turkey  I  ever  saw 
had  an  eight-inch  beard  and  weighed  twenty- 
four  pounds  even  though  quite  lean;  he  would 
have  weighed  thirty-one  or  thirty-three  pounds 
if  he  had  been  fat,  and  he  may  have  been  twenty 
years  old,  for  he  was  known  to  have  inhabited 
one  locality  for  more  than  fifteen  years. 

You  must  first  ascertain  where  the  gobblers 
are  to  be  found,  and  then  be  on  the  ground  be- 
fore there  is  the  least  sign  of  daybreak  to  select 
a  place  where  you  can  sit  hidden  and  in  comfort. 
If  satisfied  that  gobblers  are  in  the  vicinity,  wait 
until  dawn  approaches,  and  if  then  you  do  not 
hear  them,  hoot  like  the  barred  owl.  If  there  is 
an  old  gobbler  within  hearing,  nine  times  out  of 
ten  he  will  gobble  when  the  owl  hoots ;  but  if  you 
get  no  response,  "owl"  again,  or  give  a  low 
cluck;  the  old  gobbler  may  be  on  his  roost  within 


200     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

sight  of  you.  If  still  no  response,  cluck  louder, 
and  repeat  at  intervals,  adding  a  few  short, 
spirited  yelps;  if  you  fail,  move  quickly  a 
half  or  quarter  mile  away  and  call  loudly  with 
a  cluck  and  yelp  or  two.  Proceed  in  this  man- 
ner until  you  have  traversed  the  range  of  your 
proposed  hunt.  In  this  way  I  have  encountered 
several  old  gobblers  in  a  morning 's  tramp,  while 
there  was  not  one  within  hearing  of  the  point 
first  selected. 

If  turkeys  have  begun  gobbling  at  dawn, 
you  must  choose  a  place  to  call  from.  My 
choice  is  in  front  of  a  tree  a  little  larger  than 
one's  body,  facing  the  turkey.  If  possible  have 
your  back  to  a  thicket  with  open  ground  in 
front,  or  you  may  prefer  to  get  behind  a  log  or 
stump,  or  in  a  fallen  treetop.  Do  not  make  a 
blind,  for  the  obstruction  will  hide  the  game 
which  is  as  apt  to  approach  from  one  direction 
as  another;  generally  the  unexpected  way.  If 
you  sit  out  in  an  open  place  by  a  tree,  and  stick 
up  two  or  three  short  bushes  in  front,  he  will 
never  see  you  until  near  enough  for  you  to  shoot. 

If  the  old  gobbler  is  in  the  tree  before  you  take 


THE  LOVELORN  GOBBLER        201 

your  position,  do  not  approach  nearer  than  one 
hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  him;  he 
may  possibly  see  you  or  he  may  fly  behind  you, 
or  alight  at  your  side  when  you  call,  and  run 
away  before  you  can  shoot.  This  may  look 
like  a  small  matter  to  consider,  but  you  will  find 
it  amounts  to  much  in  dealing  with  old  gobblers, 
as  I  have  learned  from  experience.  I  have  had 
them  fly  right  over  my  head,  so  close  that  I  could 
have  touched  them  with  my  gun  barrel,  or  alight 
at  my  side  and  run  away  in  a  twinkling.  One 
flew  so  near  my  brother  once  as  to  flip  his  hat 
brim  with  its  wing.  The  most  remarkable  in- 
stance I  ever  knew  occurred  to  a  Mr.  Daughty 
in  Alabama.  He  was  calling  a  turkey  that  was 
gobbling  in  a  tall  pine,  and  finding  the  call  would 
not  bring  him  down,  Mr.  Daughty  took  off  his 
old  brown  felt  hat  and  gave  it  a  flop  or  two  over 
his  knees.  Before  he  had  time  to  think  the  gob- 
bler was  upon  him,  and  he  had  to  drop  his  gun  and 
ward  it  off  with  his  hands.  He  told  me  the  gob- 
bler had  stretched  out  his  feet  to  alight  on  his 
head  and  frightened  him  so  he  never  thought  of 
his  gun,  and  was  so  dazed  that  the  gobbler  was 


202     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

gone  before  he  recovered  his  wits.  I  once  called 
one  down,  and  as  he  stretched  his  legs  to  alight, 
he  saw  me,  and  with  a  loud  "put-put"  checked 
his  flight  and  shot  up  like  a  rocket. 

A  gobbler  will  invariably  alight  within  fifty  to 
seventy-five  yards  of  the  roosting  tree,  according 
to  the  height  they  are  perched  from  the  ground; 
therefore  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  is  suffi- 
ciently near  if  your  purpose  is  to  call;  but  if  you 
intend  to  stalk  and  shoot  him  in  the  tree,  you 
will  do  best  if  you  show  no  part  of  your  body; 
and  especially  keep  the  gun  barrel  out  of  sight. 
Many  hunters  will  hide  themselves  but  expose 
their  gun,  which  is  a  great  mistake,  as  the  bird 
will  surely  see  the  glint  of  light  on  the  barrel. 

It  is  best,  in  my  opinion,  not  to  call  while  the 
gobblers  are  in  the  trees,  for  the  reason  that  the 
gobbler  is  expecting  the  hen  to  come  to  him;  and 
it  will  often  happen  that  as  long  as  you  call,  so 
long  will  he  remain  in  the  tree  and  gobble  and 
strut.  I  have  had  gobblers  sit  on  their  roost 
until  9  o'clock  and  gobble  because  I  kept  yelp- 
ing. 

Having  got  into  position,   wait   until  your 


"Cluck,"  "put,"  "put,"  there  stands  a  gobbler,  within  twenty  paces  to 
the  left;  he  has  approached  from  the  rear 


THE  LOVELORN  GOBBLER         203 

nerves  are  cool.  The  turkey  hunter  must  have 
time.  Give  a  low,  soothing  cluck,  then  listen 
carefully,  as  the  turkey  may  gobble  the  instant 
he  hears  the  cluck;  perhaps  two  may  answer, 
but  we  will  confine  our  attention  to  one.  If  a 
two-year-old  bird,  he  will  gobble  before  he  thinks ; 
but  we  will  not  allow  you  such  an  easy  job  as  a 
two-year-old.  Suppose  the  gobbler  is  three  years 
or  over  —  he  will  straighten  up  his  long  neck  and 
listen  some  moments.  He  is  not  sure  it  was  a 
genuine  cluck,  but  he  thinks  it  was,  and  duly 
drops  his  broad  wings,  partly  spreads  his  tail, 
and  listens;  then, "  Vut-v-r-r-o-o-o-m-m-i"  comes 
the  booming  strut,  and  "  Gil-obble-obble-obble,"  if 
he  dares  this  it  is  to  elicit  a  call  or  cluck  from  you 
to  make  sure  he  is  not  deceived.  Now  call, 
"Cluck,  cluck,  keow,  keow,  keow,"  at  once  he 
answers  "  Gil-obble-obble-obble "  two  or  three 
times  in  a  breath  so  loud  and  shrill  that  it  rings 
out  like  thunder  in  the  quiet  of  the  forest.  Now 
give  a  low  quaver,  "Keow,  keow,  keow,"  just 
audible  to  him,  yet  low,  then  stop  right  there. 
He  will  yell  out  in  a  fierce  and  prolonged  rattle 
that  will  make  the  squirrels  quit  their  feeding 


204     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

and  spring  to  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  and  arouse 
the  herons  from  the  margin  of  the  rivers  and 
swamp  ponds.  Then  comes  the  heavy  booming 
strut,  and  if  he  gobbles  again,  be  quiet  and  let 
him  talk  to  his  heart 's  content.  Unless  you  yelp 
or  cluck  at  this  time,  he  becomes  more  and  more 
nervous  and  restless,  and  even  dances  on  the 
limb.  Keep  quiet;  he  will  now  give  a  few  lusty 
gobbles,  and  then  there  is  a  short  pause.  Look 
out  now.  There  is  a  rustle  in  the  tree,  a  flip, 
flip,  and  you  see  his  big  dark  form  leave  the  tree 
and  sail  to  the  ground,  giving  his  broad  wings 
a  flop  or  two  to  ease  up  the  impetus,  and  as  he 
strikes  the  earth  a  cloud  of  leaves  arise  in  a  cir- 
cle to  settle  around  him.  The  royal  bird  straight- 
ens up  his  matchless  form,  and  while  his  fine 
hazel  eyes  scan  the  surroundings,  you  gaze  with 
admiration  at  his  symmetry  and  beauty.  More 
likely  than  not  he  has  alighted  to  one  side;  if  so, 
beware!  Probably,  too,  if  the  woods  are  not 
very  open,  you  will  not  see  him  on  the  ground 
and  must  judge  as  to  his  movements. 

If  there  be  but  one  gobbler,  wait  a  few  minutes 
after  he  is  down,  as  he  is  listening  and  watching; 


THE  LOVELORN  GOBBLER        205 

then  make  a  few  yelps  softly,  but  rapidly,  and  a 
cluck  or  two.  He  will  gobble  and  strut  vehe- 
mently. Be  sure  your  cluck  is  a  perfect  assem- 
bly cluck,  or  he  may  take  it  as  an  alarm  "put." 
Your  cluck,  if  made  at  all,  should  have  a  reas- 
suring accent,  or  better  not  attempt  it,  depend- 
ing on  the  yelp  or  quaver.  The  cluck  and  "put" 
are  so  nearly  similar  in  sound  to  the  ear  that 
they  are  difficult  to  distinguish;  but  one  is  a  call 
note  and  the  other  is  an  alarm,  hence  it  were 
better  to  omit  both  rather  than  disturb  the  con- 
fidence of  the  bird  you  are  calling.  While  the 
two  notes  are  impossible  to  describe  in  words, 
they  can  readily  be  produced  by  an  expert  caller 
with  a  good  instrument.  Give  the  gobbler  two 
or  three  quick  little  yelps,  "Keow,  keow,  kee, 
kee,"  in  a  kind  of  an  interrogatory  tone;  this  is 
sure  to  make  him  gobble  and  strut,  or  probably 
to  strut  only.  I  prefer  that  he  strut,  although 
the  gobble  is  more  exhilarating  to  one 's  ear,  but 
does  not  signify  as  much.  The  strut  is  the 
better  sign  every  time;  it  shows  he  has  leisure 
and  passion. 

Your  "Cluck,  keow,  ku-ku,"  brings  forth  at 


206     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

once  "  Gil-obble-obble-obble.  Cluck-v-r  r-o-o-o-mi. 
Hush,  hear  that?  "  Cut-o-r-r-r,"  "  Cut,  cut  keow, 
keow,  keow"  What  is  it?  Is  some  one  else 
calling?  No;  the  sound  is  too  perfect.  Hark! 
how  he  gobbles  and  struts  with  renewed  vigor, 
for  it  is  the  siren  note  of  the  real  hen  who  has 
gone  to  him.  You  might  as  well  now  keep  quiet 
for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  for  he  will  not 
answer  as  long  as  he  is  with  a  hen.  As  soon  as 
she  is  out  of  sight,  however,  he  will  listen  to  you. 
Here,  reader,  is  the  most  important  lesson  to  be 
learned  and  the  most  valuable  in  all  turkey  lore 
—  patience. 

Fifteen  minutes  is  usually  ample  time  with 
the  lusty  turkey.  You  keep  up  the  call  and 
tease  at  proper  intervals  until  sufficient  zeal  is 
restored,  which  can  be  determined  by  the  vigor 
of  his  gobble;  then  do  not  call  any  more,  no  mat- 
ter what  he  does.  Keep  still  and  watch  his 
manoeuvres,  and  presently  he  will  begin  to  gobble 
and  strut  with  great  stress,  gyrate,  and  swerve 
from  side  to  side,  right  to  left,  his  big  tail,  doing 
everything  to  fetch  the  new  hen  whose  voice  he 
hears;  but  you  must  not  break  the  spell  by  any 


Suddenly  there  was  a  "  Gil-obble-obble-obble,"  so  near  it  made  me 
jump,  and  there  within  twenty  paces  of  me  was  the  gobbler 


THE  LOVELORN  GOBBLER         207 

false  move.  All  at  once  he  stops  and  everything 
is  still  again.  Maybe  another  hen  has  come 
to  his  court,  maybe  not.  But  do  not  yelp  or 
cluck;  he  may  be  coming  to  you,  for  he  knows 
precisely  where  you  are,  and  if  he  is  not  caress- 
ing another  hen  he  is  surely  approaching  you. 
This  may  take  fully  an  hour,  sometimes  six. 

"Cluck,  put,  put,  "  there  stands  a  young  gob- 
bler within  twenty  paces  to  the  left:  he  has  ap- 
proached from  the  rear.  Make  no  motion.  He 
has  not  identified  you.  "Put,  put.'9  Keep  still. 
"Put,  o-r-r-r-r."  He  begins  to  step  high,  turn- 
ing to  one  side,  then  to  the  other.  "C-r-r-r-r." 
He  pulls  out  the  tip  of  one  wing  and  places  it 
on  the  other.  Note  that.  He  is  going  to  walk 
away.  "Put,  c-r-r-r-r."  He  is  gone;  but  let 
him  go,  and  good  riddance,  for  he  has  created  a 
distrust  in  the  old  gobbler's  mind  that  will  take 
some  time  to  remove.  You  are  now  compelled 
to  change  your  place  and  call  again.  "Gil- 
obble-obble-obble."  Gracious!  he  is  off  to  the 
right  and  fifty  yards  nearer.  If  there  is  suffi- 
cient cover,  make  a  detour  of  from  one  hundred 
and  fifty  to  two  hundred  yards  and  get  ahead 


208     THE   WILD    TURKEY    AND    ITS   HUNTING 

of  him;  then  sit  down,  give  a  yelp  or  two,  and 
end  with  a  cluck.  That  will  reassure  him  at 
once,  and  he  will  most  surely  gobble  in  reply ;  if 
so,  you  sit  still.  Have  your  rifle  in  readiness  so 
that  no  move  be  made  when  he  comes  into  view. 
Very  likely  you  have  waited  some  time  since  he 
gobbled  last,  and  apparently  he  has  quit  all 
strutting.  There  is  another  ominous  pause,  but 
you  are  ready  for  him  and  on  the  sharp  lookout. 
You  are  sorely  vexed,  but  your  good  judgment 
keeps  you  alert  while  the  other  hunters  have 
long  since  gone  home. 

"  Gil-obble-obble-obble."  Sh-e-e-e-e.  There 
he  is  within  thirty  paces  to  the  right  at  a  half 
strut.  What  a  bird !  See  his  noble  bearing,  the 
bronzed  coat,  the  glint  in  the  keen  eye.  You 
can't  move  now,  for  he  sees  you,  but  he  has  not 
made  you  out.  Be  still  and  let  him  pass  behind 
that  big  oak,  then  turn  quickly  before  he  comes 
into  view  again.  Ah!  that  low  green  bush  has 
obscured  him;  he  has  passed  out  of  sight  and 
does  not  reappear.  Your  nerves  begin  to  run 
like  the  wheels  of  a  clock  with  the  balance  off. 
Your  disappointment  is  inconsolable.  "Gil- 


THE  LOVELORN  GOBBLER        209 

obble-obble-obble,"  nearly,  one  hundred  yards  on 
his  way.  This  is  discouraging,  but  the  educated 
turkey  hunter  never  gives  up  so  long  as  a  gob- 
bler will  argue  with  him. 

Get  up  at  once  and  make  a  rapid  detour,  tak- 
ing in  two  hundred  yards ;  get  ahead  of  him  again 
and  on  his  line  of  march.  Then  sit  down  and 
call  as  soon  as  possible  to  attract  his  attention. 
This  done  your  chances  are  as  good  as  ever. 
"  Gil-obble-obble-obble."  You  have  estimated 
well.  The  gobbler  is  one  hundred  yards  back 
yet,  which  gives  you  a  breathing  spell.  He  be- 
gins to  rehearse  the  old  role  of  gobbling  and 
strutting,  but  with  greater  force,  as  he  has  had  a 
long  rest.  Now  give  another  call  and  cluck  to 
see  where  he  is;  no  response,  and  you  are  becom- 
ing as  restless  as  a  raccoon  robbing  a  yellow- 
jacket's  nest,  and  crazy  for  just  one  more  call; 
but  I  advise  not;  have  patience,  and  wait.  An- 
other call  would  only  cause  delay  if  not  other 
harm.  He  is  the  one  now  to  get  nervous,  for 
that  hen  may  escape.  A  crow  gives  a  sudden 
caw  in  a  neighboring  tree,  and,  "  Gil-obble-obble 
obble,"  says  the  turkey,  now  only  seventy-five 


210     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS'HUNTING 

yards  away.  But  you  are  silent.  Again  comes  a 
long  pause,  and  you  think  he  has  detected  you 
and  gone.  A  red  tail  hawk  darts  screaming 
through  the  timber,  and,  "  Gil-obble-obble-obble 
cluck  v-r-r-r-o-o-m-i,"  goes  your  bird  thirty  yards 
nearer;  then  all  is  silent  again.  He  has  made  a 
strenuous  effort  to  draw  your  call,  but  you  are 
deaf.  Another  long  pause  and  you  are  in  a 
tremor  all  over.  He  has  quit  making  any  noise, 
and  the  stillness  is  painful  for,  save  a  solitary  red 
bird  trilling  his  carol  in  yon  elm,  and  a  gray  squir- 
rel nibbling  the  buds  on  that  slender  maple,  all  is 
still.  Two  chameleons  are  racing  on  the  log 
behind  which  you  are  crouching,  and,  springing 
suddenly  to  the  dry  leaves,  they  startle  you  with 
the  clattering  they  make,  so  highly  strung  are 
your  nerves ;  but  you  dare  not  move. 

Why  this  insufferable  silence?  The  gobbler  is 
coming,  but  when  will  he  appear?  Your  rifle 
is  in  position,  cocked,  your  eye  running  along 
the  glistening  barrel,  but  that  is  all  of  you  which 
is  allowed  to  move.  A  distant  dead  tree  falls 
with  a  heavy  thud  that  shakes  the  earth.  "  Gil- 
obble-obble-obble"  breaks  upon  your  ear  and  sends 


THE   LOVELORN    GOBBLER 

a  thrill  through  your  nerves,  and  the  timid  squir- 
rel wiggling  and  scampering  to  his  hole  in  a  hol- 
low gum.  The  sound  comes  from  the  oblique  left. 
Your  eyes  turn  slowly  that  way.  Ah!  there 
he  stands,  half  erect,  half  concealed  in  the  brush. 
You  see  the  white  top  of  his  head,  the  crimson 
wattles  of  his  arched  neck,  the  long  beard  and 
the  glint  of  his  eye,  for  he  is  only  forty  paces 
away;  but  do  not  fire,  as  the  least  twig  may  de- 
flect the  ball.  He  has  not  made  you  out,  al- 
though in  plain  view,  nor  will  he,  unless  you 
make  a  sudden  move. 

You  have  carefully  brought  the  rifle  to  bear  on 
him.  He  is  meditative  and  somewhat  listless; 
but  note  that  tail  going  up :  he  is  going  to  strut, 
and  that  will  bring  him  into  an  open  space. 
"Cluck  v-r-r-r-o-o-o-m-i."  There!  he  is  broad- 
side on.  See  that  crease  that  runs  along  his  neck 
ending  near  the  butt  of  the  wing?  Drop  your 
bead  on  the  butt  of  the  wing  opposite  where  that 
crease  ends.  That  will  kill  him  every  time,  as 
behind  lies  his  heart;  while  if  you  aim  for  the 
centre  of  the  body  the  bullet  will  go  through  the 
viscera,  making  a  mess  of  it,  and  while  a  fatal 


THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

wound,  he  may  get  away  and  be  lost  to  you,  for 
it  will  not  always  knock  him  down.  If  he  stands 
quartering,  aim  at  the  centre  of  the  breast  next 
to  you.  It  will  at  once  be  fatal.  If  the  back  is 
presented,  which  is  not  once  in  a  hundred  times, 
draw  upon  the  centre  of  it.  Unless  turkeys  are 
very  plentiful,  and  you  care  little  about  losing  a 
good  chance,  don 't  shoot  at  his  head  with  a  rifle. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  INDIFFERENT  YOUNG  GOBBLER 

OF  ALL  stages,  conditions,  and  pecul- 
iarities of  these  fowls,  the  young 
gobbler  is  the  most  difficult  to  under- 
stand. He  is  absolutely  unique,  hence  you 
must  employ  entirely  different  tactics  when 
you  go  in  quest  of  him.  He  has  little  educa- 
tion, but  he  possesses  a  great  native  shrewdness, 
and  I  have  sometimes  thought  him  more  difficult 
to  get  than  either  the  old  gobbler  or  hen;  this 
may  be  a  fool's  luck,  or  it  may  be  the  result  of 
stupidity  or  reticence,  but  I  have  killed  ten  old 
gobblers  to  one  young  one.  As  I  have  before 
stated,  while  the  young  males  are  with  their 
mothers  and  sisters  in  the  flock  there  is  little 
difficulty  in  bringing  them  to  the  call  after  the 
flock  is  scattered.  But  after  the  separation  of 
the  sexes  they  are  extremely  hard  to  call,  for  the 
reason  that  they  have  abandoned  the  society  of 

213 


214     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

the  females  altogether,  and  do  not  pay  any  atten- 
tion to  their  voices.  Lack  of  information  and  a 
reckless  carelessness  have  caused  the  loss  of 
many  young  gobblers  that  otherwise  might  have 
been  secured.  After  the  young  males  have  been 
separated  some  time  from  the  females,  and  are 
banded  together,  they  are  hard  to  find  and  hard 
to  bag  when  found.  Instead  of  flushing  at  once 
into  the  tree  at  the  approach  of  an  enemy,  they 
usually  take  to  their  legs  and  run  some  distance 
before  stopping,  making  their  pursuit  difficult 
and  unreliable.  If  once  flushed  and  scattered, 
and  the  hunter  understands  how  to  call  them,  he 
can  usually  get  one  or  two  out  of  the  flock  if  he 
is  familiar  with  their  peculiar  ways.  Thus  after 
December  we  have  three  distinct  classes  of  tur- 
key society,  the  old  gobblers,  the  young  gobblers, 
and  the  hens;  and  no  matter  what  the  number  of 
them  is,  they  persistently  maintain  this  separa- 
tion the  rest  of  the  winter. 

The  soft,  gentle  quaver  of  the  hen  has  no  effect 
on  the  ear  of  the  young  gobbler  at  this  season, 
and  he  will  hearken  to  no  other  note  or  call  than 
that  of  the  young  gobbler.  Even  were  a  flock 


THE  INDIFFERENT  YOUNG  GOBBLER   215 

of  hens  to  pass  beneath  the  tree  on  which  he  is 
perched,  he  would  regard  them  with  no  more 
interest  than  he  would  a  flock  of  crows;  hence 
neither  the  hen  nor  her  yelp  would  be  a  decoy  to 
him,  but  the  call  of  another  young  gobbler  will 
enlist  his  attention.  The  call  of  the  young  gob- 
bler, like  that  of  the  average  boy  as  he  is  develop- 
ing into  manhood,  is  changeable  and  erratic;  at 
times  it  is  ridiculous  from  its  awkwardness,  and 
hard  to  imitate  or  even  to  identify.  It  consists  of 
an  irregular  hoarse  and  discordant  croak  and  a 
coarse  muffled  cluck  that  sounds  like  an  acorn 
falling  into  a  pool  of  water,  or  the  gentle  tap  of  a 
stick  on  a  log.  If  this  yelp  or  cluck  is  properly 
and  timely  made,  it  will  bring  the  young  gobbler 
to  the  hunter,  but  usually  he  is  in  no  haste  to 
come  even  then.  They  have  ample  time  to  spare 
for  all  their  movements,  and  it  requires  the  great- 
est patience  and  dogged  determination  of  which 
a  sportsman  is  capable  to  sit  and  wait  their  pleas- 
ure; but  if  the  hunter  has  a  band  of  young  gob- 
blers well  scattered ,  if  he  has  a  good  caller  and  is 
expert  in  its  use,  and  will  make  up  his  mind  to 
sit  quiet  and  talk  turkey,  he  will  usually  be  re- 


216      THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

warded.  He  should  use  only  one  or  two  low, 
coarse  clucks,  well  measured  and  some  time  apart ; 
then  the  low,  muffled  "Croc,  croc."  The  young 
gobbler  may  be  sitting  on  the  limb  of  a  tall 
cypress,  hidden  from  view  by  a  festoon  of  Span- 
ish moss;  or,  if  in  a  pine,  hidden  by  the  limbs,  as 
still  as  a  part  of  the  tree.  "  Croc,  croc,"  and  one 
low,  hoarse  cluck,  as  if  a  nut  had  struck  the  bark 
of  a  dead  log  in  falling,  are  the  only  sounds  you 
dare  to  make.  He  is  not  so  reckless  in  regard  to 
the  call  or  answers  as  the  hens,  and  not  so  ner- 
vous. While  he  sits  and  contemplates,  he  meas- 
ures notes;  so  that  you  have  to  be  careful  if 
you  would  fool  him.  Now  call,  "Croc,  croc." 
His  fears  begin  to  dissipate,  and  running  his 
beak  through  his  feathers,  he  makes  his  toilet. 
This  over,  he  slowly  raises  his  long  neck  and  head 
and  replies,  "  Croc,  croc.'9  "  Cong,  cong,  croc,  croc, 
cluck."  He  turns  his  head  with  one  side  earth- 
ward, and  gives  himself  a  convulsive  shake  — 
"Croc,  croc."  He  lifts  up  one  foot  and  then  slowly 
puts  it  down;  lifts  one  wing,  placing  its  tip  on 
top  of  the  other,  then  slips  that  one  out  and  laps 
it  on  the  first.  "  Croc,  croc,  kee,  kee."  He  looks 


THE  INDIFFERENT  YOUNG  GOBBLER   217 

around  again  to  be  reassured.  Now  there  is  a 
rustle  in  the  top  of  the  tree,  and  you  see  the 
leaves  move,  for  he  has  turned  on  the  limb  and 
you  may  see  a  portion  of  his  body.  You  dare 
not  shoot  or  risk  a  bullet  through  that  brush. 
Wait.  "Croc,  croc";  he  walks  along  the  limb  a 
few  feet,  but  you  still  get  only  glimpses.  "Croc, 
croc"  and  down  he  sails  to  the  earth.  A  cloud 
of  dry  leaves  arises  around  him  and  settles  again 
as  he  closes  his  broad  wings  and  straightens  up. 
Now  is  your  chance;  bag  him. 

When  the  young  gobbler  once  makes  up  his 
mind  to  go  to  your  call,  there  is  little  or  no  stop- 
ping on  his  part.  He  walks  boldy  along,  as  if  he 
had  no  fear  of  anything.  But  be  careful;  he  will 
see  you  surely  if  you  make  an  unnecessary  mo- 
tion, and  there  is  no  compromising  a  mistake 
with  him.  His  adieu  is  final.  He  is  a  bird  of  the 
fewest  words  at  any  time,  and  stands  upon  the 
idea  that  absolute  silence  is  safety.  His  habits 
are  exclusive  and  retiring,  seldom  showing  him- 
self in  openings,  although  at  times  he  is  fond  of 
open  pastures  or  prairies  where  he  can  see  all 
around  him. 


CHAPTER  XV 


I  DO  NOT  believe  there  is  any  safer  way  of 
bringing  a  turkey  to  bag  than  by  the  judi- 
cious employment  of  a  good  turkey  dog,  and 
by  that  I  mean  a  dog  trained  especially  to  hunt 
turkeys.     The  hunter,  too,  who  employs  a  dog 
must  know  and  act  his  part  well  to  be  successful. 
Of  all  times  to  hunt  the  wild  turkey  with  a 
dog,  the  autumn  and  winter  months  are  the  best. 
The  dog  should  be  a  natural  bird   dog,  either 
pointer  or  setter.     My  choice,  next  to  the  point- 
ers or  setters,  are  the  terriers,  either  Scotch  or 
fox.     The   Scotch   terrier   makes   an   excellent 
turkey  dog,  due  to  its  intelligence,  patience,  cour- 
age, and  snap. 

I  have  had  dogs  lie  by  my  side  when  turkeys 
were  gobbling  and  strutting  within  a  few  feet, 
and  never  move  a  muscle  until  the  gun  was  fired, 
when  they  would  be  upon  the  bird  instantly. 

218 


HUNTING   TURKEY   WITH   A   DOG  219 

If  you  employ  a  dog  in  gobbling  time,  he  must 
be  thoroughly  educated  to  distinctly  know  his 
part,  which  is  to  keep  at  heel  or  lie  at  your  side 
and  watch  without  a  sound  until  the  bird  is  called 
to  gun  and  shot;  then  the  dog  is  allowed  to  go 
and  seize  the  quarry  if  it  is  not  killed  by  the  shot 
and  making  off  with  a  broken  wing. 

In  Alabama  I  once  saw  a  large  gobbler  coming 
slowly  to  my  call  over  a  pine  hill  about  ninety 
yards  away.  I  fired  at  him  with  my  rifle  as  he 
was  moving  in  a  full  strut.  At  the  shot,  my 
gobbler  tumbled  over,  but  quickly  got  up  and 
made  off  at  a  lively  run  with  one  wing  hanging. 
I  started  after  him,  at  the  same  time  calling  to 
my  brother  (who  was  below  me  on  a  creek,  call- 
ing another  turkey)  to  let  go  his  dog.  In  a 
moment  I  saw  a  gray  streak  shoot  out  from  the 
thicket  on  the  creek,  and  start  up  the  hill 
in  pursuit  of  the  running  gobbler.  It  was  my 
brother's  Scotch  terrier,  and  within  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  yards  the  dog  overhauled  the 
gobbler,  to  my  great  satisfaction,  and  held 
him  until  I  arrived.  Had  I  not  had  the  services 
of  a  dog  at  this  time  the  turkey  would  have 


220     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

escaped,  as  he  could  get  up  the  high,  rocky  slope 
faster  than  I. 

It  is  best  to  take  a  young  dog  six  or  eight 
months  old.  The  training  is  easy  enough,  pro- 
vided the  preceptor  knows  his  part.  Like  edu- 
cating a  dog  for  quail,  he  must  get  the  rudiments 
before  he  ever  sees  the  live  game,  for  once  a 
lesson  is  spoiled  a  dog  is  also  spoiled.  Give  him 
a  few  lessons  before  taking  him  into  the  woods  to 
hunt  turkeys.  He  must  know  the  turkey  is  his 
quest  ere  he  is  let  loose;  and  do  not  loose  him  until 
you  have  found  unmistakably  fresh  signs;  for  one 
mistake  at  such  a  time  will  take  months  to  repair. 

Teach  him  to  lie  down,  the  same  as  in  quail  les- 
sons, no  matter  if  he  is  a  pointer,  terrier,  or  hound. 
Having  taught  him  to  lie  down,  take  him  walking 
where  there  are  trees,  logs,  and  fences,  and  every 
now  and  then  suddenly  sit  or  squat  down  by  some 
tree  or  fence,  calling  him  quickly  to  you  by  soft 
words  and  motion  of  the  hand.  Make  him  lie 
down  close  to  your  hip,  better  the  left  side  if 
you  are  right  handed,  so  that  by  any  unexpected 
move  he  may  not  destroy  your  aim  at  a  critical 
moment.  Teach  him  to  lie  on  his  belly  or  with 


HUNTING   TURKEY   WITH   A   DOG 

his  head  prone  between  his  forepaws.  This 
is  easily  done,  and  will  insure  a  motionless  atti- 
tude as  a  turkey  is  approaching.  If  he  whines 
under  excitement,  as  some  will,  tap  him  lightly 
with  a  small  switch  on  the  head;  this  will  also 
make  him  put  his  head  down,  and  he  will  soon 
understand  the  meaning  of  it. 

Next  get  a  dead  wild  turkey,  hen  if  possible, 
as  it  is  lighter.  Take  the  dog  into  the  yard  or 
field  where  there  are  no  dogs  or  children  to 
bother  him.  Let  him  play  with  the  turkey  a 
little,  while  you  encourage  him ,  then  have  some 
one  drag  the  turkey  from  him  by  the  head  a 
short  distance,  while  you  hold  and  encourage  the 
dog  to  go.  Let  the  turkey  be  hung  up  in  a  tree 
or  bush  out  of  his  reach ;  then  let  him  go  and  take 
the  trail  and  tree  the  bird,  and  encourage  him  to 
bark  and  jump  against  the  tree.  Then  have  it 
fixed  so  that  after  he  has  jumped  and  barked  a 
while  you  can  fire  a  gun  or  pistol  and  the  carcass 
falls  to  the  ground  and  he  pounces  upon  it.  Re- 
peat this  as  often  as  you  have  an  opportunity. 
You  may  keep  a  wing  cut  off  at  the  second  joint, 
using  that  for  several  lessons  before  it  becomes 


222     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

tainted,  but  by  no  means  allow  him  to  tear  the 
wing  or  bite  the  flesh  of  the  turkey.  You  might 
set  him  after  a  tame  turkey  now  and  then,  but 
this  might  bring  him  some  day  to  grief  by  a  load 
of  shot  from  your  good  neighbor. 

Take  the  dog  with  you  on  a  few  hunts  in  the 
woods  for  turkeys.  If  you  find  a  flock,  put  him 
after  them  at  once  and  let  him  flush  them,  which 
he  will  hardly  fail  to  do.  Then,  if  you  can  kill 
one  over  him,  your  turkey  dog  is  well-nigh  made. 
Having  had  your  turkeys  flushed,  you  can  walk 
slowly  and  cautiously  in  the  direction  they  flew, 
looking  into  every  tree,  and  you  will  soon  see  one 
or  two  of  them  perched  upon  a  limb.  To  get 
your  bird  now  is  easy  if  you  have  a  good  rifle; 
and  you  had  better  not  be  out  if  you  haven't 
one,  as  no  kind  of  shooting  requires  better  marks- 
manship than  turkey  shooting,  especially  in  the 
timber.  Having  treed  your  turkey,  you  may  get 
several  shots,  and  meantime  the  dofg  is  allowed 
to  trot  around  and  bark  as  he  seedHic,  as  the  more 
noise  he  makes  the  more  is  the  attention  of  the 
birds  diverted  from  you  to  him;  but  after  you 
have  looked  among  the  trees  in  a  few  hundred 


HUNTING   TURKEY   WITH   A   DOG  223 

yards  of  the  flush,  if  you  have  not  secured  your 
bird,  select  a  good  place  to  call.  Sit  down  with 
your  back  against  a  tree,  or  behind  a  log  or  fallen 
tree  if  that  suits  you  better.  Sit  quite  flat  and 
low,  bringing  the  knees  nearly  up  to  the  eyes. 
Call  the  dog  to  you  at  once  by  a  whisper  and  wave 
of  the  hand,  and  make  him  lie  snugly  at  your 
side,  looking  in  the  direction  you  look. 

After  a  few  minutes,  when  everything  is  still, 
you  begin  to  call  at  short  intervals.  Now  and 
then  a  low  yelp,  at  first,  and  if  you  get  a  reply, 
cease  calling  until  the  results  begin  to  show  up, 
either  by  one  or  more  turkeys  coming  to  your 
call,  or  in  their  collecting  together  in  another  di- 
rection, which  is  more  likely  to  be  the  case,  from 
the  fact  that  the  mother  hen  is  doing  more  effec- 
tive calling  than  you,  or  they  are  inclined  to  go 
that  way  anyhow.  In  such  a  case  you  must  get 
up  at  once  and  proceed  in  the  direction  you  see 
them  flying.  Go  quickly  to  where  they  are  col- 
lecting. Put  the  dog  after  them  again  and  into 
the  trees  they  will  go;  you  then  proceed  as  at 
first  and  continue  these  tactics  until  you  have 
got  what  you  want,  or  have  lost  them  entirely. 


224     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND   ITS   HUNTING 

This  is  excellent  and  exciting  sport,  and  the 
dog  loves  it  and  soon  becomes  an  expert  in  the 
chase.  But  of  all  methods  of  hunting  the  tur- 
key it  is  the  most  disastrous,  next  to  baiting,  not 
so  much  in  the  number  of  birds  killed,  but  the  tur- 
key has  a  great  dread  of  a  dog,  and  if  too  fre- 
quently chased  by  one  it  will  drive  the  birds 
out  of  the  locality.  It  should  seldom  be  prac- 
tised in  the  same  locality  or  upon  the  same  flock 
of  turkeys  more  than  once  in  a  season. 

The  rifle  is  preeminently  the  gun  to  employ  in 
this  method  of  hunting,  and  there  is  a  great  sat- 
isfaction in  taking  a  fine  bird  from  its  lofty  perch 
in  a  tall  pine,  gum,  or  cypress  at  one  hundred  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  where  it  would  be 
safe  from  any  shotgun. 

Dogs  trained  to  hunt  turkeys  must  not  be  al- 
lowed to  run  squirrels,  hares,  deer,  or  any  wood- 
land game.  It  makes  no  difference  as  to  quail  or 
prairie  game,  but  in  the  timber  his  work  belongs 
to  the  turkey  alone. 

In  teaching  the  young  dog  to  grasp  a  turkey, 
it  should  be  trained  to  seize  the  bird  by  the  neck 
every  time,  and  not  touch  the  body,  as  his  teeth 


HUNTING   TURKEY    WITH   A    DOG 

will  lacerate  the  tender  skin  and  tear  the  flesh  — 
a  thing  no  true  sportsman  would  tolerate.  It  is 
easy  to  teach  the  dog  not  to  mouth  the  game  by 
making  him  take  the  neck  in  his  mouth  every 
time  an  opportunity  is  afforded.  If  he  takes  hold 
of  the  body,  or  mouths  the  feathers,  make  him  let 
go  and  take  the  neck.  He  will  soon  learn  this. 

The  common  fox  hound  also  makes  a  good  tur- 
key dog,  and  takes  naturally  to  it,  but  he  is  too 
noisy.  A  turkey  dog  must  not  yelp  or  bark  on 
the  track  before  he  sees  the  birds  as  the  hound 
does.  Turkeys  are  alarmed  easily  and  prefer  to 
run  instead  of  to  fly,  and  if  the  dog  barks  on  the 
trail  they  will  run  for  miles,  all  the  time  probably 
not  one  hundred  yards  in  advance  of  the  dog. 
So  the  dog  for  turkeys  must  keep  silent  until  in 
sight  of  them,  and  then  bark  savagely  until  they 
are  all  flushed.  This  the  pointer,  setter,  or  ter- 
rier will  do.  Be  sure  to  encourage  your  dog  to 
bark  at  the  turkeys  in  the  trees. 

Audubon  says:  "In  the  spring  when  the 
males  are  much  emaciated  by  their  attention 
to  the  hens,  it  sometimes  happens  that,  in  plain, 
open  ground  they  may  be  overtaken  by  a  swift 


THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

dog,  in  which  case  they  squat  and  allow  them- 
selves to  be  seized,  either  by  the  dog  or  the  hun- 
ter, who  has  followed  on  a  good  horse."  I  have 
heard  of  such  occurrences,  but  I  never  saw  an  in- 
stance of  the  kind.  Good  dogs  scent  the  <tur- 
keys  when  in  large  flocks  at  a  great  distance;  I 
may  venture  to  say  half  a  mile  away,  if  the  wind 
is  right.  Should  the  dog  be  well  trained  to  the 
sport,  he  will  set  off  at  full  speed  on  getting  the 
scent  and  in  silence  until  he  sees  thebirds,  when  he 
instantly  barks,  and,  running  among  them,  forces 
the  whole  flock  to  take  to  the  trees  in  different 
directions.  This  is  of  great  advantage  to  the 
hunter,  for,  should  all  the  turkeys  go  one  way, 
they  would  soon  leave  the  perches  and  run  again ; 
but  when  they  are  separated  by  the  dog,  a  per- 
son accustomed  to  the  sport  finds  the  birds  easily 
and  shoots  them  at  pleasure. 

No  turkey  is  going  to  run  very  long  ahead  of  a 
dog,  if  the  dog  is  in  sight  and  chasing  him.  A 
pack  of  mouthy  beagles,  or  an  old,  slow  deer- 
hound,  giving  mouth  continually,  might  keep  a 
turkey  in  a  trot  until  fatigued;  it  is  possible  then 
that  a  quick,  swift  dog  like  the  Scotch  terrier  or 


HUNTING   TUEKEY   WITH   A    DOG 

the  pointer  might  rush  on  and  catch  him.  But 
the  first  impulse  of  the  turkey,  on  the  near  ap- 
proach of  an  enemy,  is  to  fly  and  not  to  depend 
on  its  legs;  though  on  seeing  an  enemy  at  some 
distance,  turkeys  will  run  away  and  not  fly  at  all. 
In  the  open  prairie  it  is  quite  another  matter. 
On  seeing  a  turkey  or  flock  of  them  on  a  wide 
prairie,  one  can,  by  riding  in  a  circuitous  direc- 
tion, as  if  passing  in  ignorance  of  them,  get  near 
and  start  them  into  a  trot,  and  keep  them  trot- 
ting by  keeping  between  them  and  the  nearest 
timber.  In  this  way,  although  you  ride  slowly, 
you  will  soon  run  them  down.  The  first  indica- 
tion of  exhaustion  to  be  noted  will  be  the  drop- 
ping of  their  wings,  and  when  the  hunter  sees 
that,  he  knows  that  they  cannot  rise  to  fly;  he 
then  closes  in  and  easily  rides  the  birds  down. 
This  is,  or  used  to  be,  a  favorite  sport  with  the 
cowboys  of  Texas,  in  which  they  sometimes  em- 
ployed a  lariat,  catching  the  birds  as  they  would 
a  calf,  or  shooting  them  with  a  revolver.  In  case 
neither  the  revolver  nor  lariat  is  handy,  they  take 
a  bullet,  partly  split  with  a  knife,  and  then  let 
the  tip  of  their  cow  whiplash  into  the  cleft  of 


THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

the  bullet;  clamping  the  lead  tightly  on  the  lash. 
Thus  armed,  they  pursue  the  turkeys  until  they 
drop  their  wings,  when,  dashing  among  them, 
they  strike  the  neck  of  the  turkey  with  the  lash, 
a  foot  from  the  end  of  the  tip,  which  sends  the  bul- 
let whizzing  around  the  neck  four  to  six  times; 
and  ere  the  turkey  can  recover,  the  cowboy  dis- 
mounts and  secures  it, 

If  there  is  snow  on  the  ground  there  is  little 
trouble  in  following  the  turkeys  by  their  tracks. 
I  have  done  but  little  of  such  hunting,  as  sufficient 
snow  seldom  falls  in  the  South  to  make  good 
tracking.  When  you  hunt  turkeys  on  the  snow, 
all  there  is  to  do  is  to  find  their  tracks  and  follow 
them  carefully  until  the  birds  are  seen;  then  ob- 
serve the  same  tactics  as  in  stalking  them  on  the 
bare  earth. 

In  the  South  they  are  unprepared  for  much 
cold,  and  at  such  times  will  likely  be  found 
grouped  together  on  the  sunny  slopes  of  hills, 
or  behind  some  log  or  fence,  to  avoid  the  bitter 
winds,  especially  if  the  sun  is  not  shining.  They 
will  then  often  remain  on  their  roosts  half  a  day 
rather  than  alight  on  the  cold  snow. 


HUNTING   TURKEY   WITH   A   DOG  229 

If  you  attempt  to  stalk  an  old  gobbler  when  he 
is  gobbling  it  is  quite  easy  if  you  learn  the  course 
he  is  taking  and  get  ahead  of  him  and  simply 
wait.  Some  men  hunt  no  other  way  and  are  suc- 
cessful; but  it  requires  the  greatest  care,  and  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  woods  you  are  in,  so 
that  you  may  take  advantage  of  ridges,  ravines, 
gulches,  thickets,  etc. 

When  you  have  discovered  a  flock  of  turkeys 
at  some  distance  from  you,  stop  and  wait  a  few 
moments.  If  they  are  feeding,  and  you  are  un- 
observed by  them,  carefully  note  in  what  direc- 
tion they  are  moving.  It  is  hard  to  tell  if  they 
are  going  or  coming  two  hundred  yards  away,  but 
there  is  one  way  by  which  their  movements  can 
readily  be  determined  and  that  is  by  their  color. 
If  they  are  approaching,  you  will  notice  the  black- 
ness of  their  breasts;  or  rather  the  birds  will 
appear  almost  black;  and  if  a  majority  so  appear, 
you  may  be  sure  they  are  coming;  in  other 
words,  if  you  see  one  or  two  of  them  straighten 
up,  and  they  look  quite  dark  or  black,  you  can 
then  be  certain  of  their  approach.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  you  notice  that  they  look  a  lightish  gray 


<230     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

or  brown  color,  they  are  going  the  other  way. 
But  do  not  be  deceived,  as  sometimes  a  flock  has 
stopped  to  feed,  and  they  will  be  turning  and  fac- 
ing in  all  directions  while  so  engaged;  occasion- 
ally one  will  straighten  up,  flop  his  wings,  and 
look  back.  Have  an  eye  to  the  band  and  you 
will  see  if  many  of  them  look  black  or  gray.  If 
there  are  gobblers  in  the  bunch,  note  their  breasts 
which  are  blacker  than  the  hens. 

There  is  another  way  to  find  the  direction  in 
which  the  turkeys  are  moving  if  you  cannot  see 
them.  When  you  have  found  fresh  signs  in  the 
woods,  note  the  scratches  carefully  to  see  which 
way  most  of  them  incline.  This  is  easily  deter- 
mined by  the  direction  in  which  the  leaves  are 
thrown  by  the  birds'  feet.  Sometimes,  if  the 
scratches  are  made  late  in  the  evening,  they  will 
look  fresh  the  next  morning  and  thus  deceive 
the  oldest  hunter.  I  once  saw  scratches  on  an 
open  pin  oak  and  cane  ridge;  then  others  at 
twenty  paces,  and  again  at  fifty  paces  still  others. 
After  a  careful  examination  of  the  scratches,  I 
concluded  there  must  be  two  old  gobblers  that 
had  made  the  signs;  and,  although  I  knew  of 


HUNTING   TURKEY   WITH    A    DOG  231 

twenty  or  thirty  hens  and  some  young  gobblers 
on  that  ridge,  I  had  no  suspicion  before  that 
there  were  any  old  gobblers.  Now,  reader,  what 
caused  me  to  suspect  from  these  scratchings  that 
old  gobblers  were  about,  and  that  there  were  two 
of  them  was  this:  there  were  but  few  scratches 
and  at  long  intervals.  The  scratches  were  very 
large,  almost  two  feet  across,  while  the  leaves 
had  been  thrown  five  or  six  feet  back,  indicating 
long  legs  and  large  feet  with  a  great  stroke.  I 
noticed  there  were  two  separate  lines  of  scratches 
some  ten  feet  apart  on  the  main  trend;  also  the 
scratches  were  twenty  to  fifty  yards  apart  in 
the  direction  the  birds  were  going,  which  indi- 
cated that  the  two  birds  were  walking  along  at 
a  brisk  pace  and  keeping  pretty  well  in  a  straight 
line,  feeding  as  they  went. 

I  believe  no  man  alive  or  dead  has  killed  more 
"old  gobblers"  than  I  have,  and  yet  the  heaviest 
I  ever  bagged  weighed  twenty-four  pounds 
gross.  This  bird  might  have  reached  thirty  or 
thirty-three  pounds  had  he  been  fat,  but  it  was 
late  in  the  gobbling  season,  when  the  winter  fat 
is  run  off  by  constant  love  affairs,  leaving  them 


232     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

greatly  reduced  in  weight.  This  specimen  was 
killed  in  Trinity  County,  Texas,  where  I  have 
found  the  turkeys  to  average  heavier  than  any- 
where else  I  have  hunted. 

Audubon  said  the  wild  turkey  would  soon 
become  extinct  in  the  United  States,  sixty  or 
seventy  years  ago;  but  to  date  his  prophecy  has 
failed  in  so  far  as  the  Southern  or  Gulf  States 
are  concerned.  Although  here  as  elsewhere 
hunted  and  persecuted  without  consideration, 
they  are  remarkably  plentiful  still.  There  are 
localities  in  the  Gulf  States  that  will  not  be  cleared 
up  or  ultilized  for  agricultural  purposes  in  ages 
to  come  —  if  then.  The  immense  swamps  — 
annually  overflowed  —  great  hummocks,  and  the 
broken,  untenable  pine  hills,  will  afford  suitable 
retreats  for  the  turkey  for  generations  to  come. 

Wild  turkeys  are  less  understood  by  the  aver- 
age sportsman  or  even  naturalist  than  any  other 
of  our  game  birds.  It  is  common  to  read  of  the 
acute  olfactory  powers  of  the  turkey;  that  he 
scents  the  hunter  at  one  hundred  to  three  hun- 
dred yards;  the  truth  is  it  must  be  a  pungent 
odor  to  have  a  turkey  detect  it  at  ten  paces. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  SECRET  OF  COOKING  THE  TURKEY 

OF  MATTERS  with  which  the  average 
sportsman  has  to  do,  there  is  none  so 
little  understood  as  that  of  cooking 
game,  and  especially  the  turkey.  Thousands  of 
sportsmen  go  into  the  hunting  camp  expecting  to 
play  the  role  of  cook  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  simplest  requirements  and  as  a  consequence 
are  in  perpetual  trouble  and  disappointment  on 
account  of  the  blunders  that  are  the  inevitable 
results  of  lack  of  information.  In  the  solitude  of 
the  forest  the  hunter  should  not  be  at  loss  for 
methods  of  cooking  even  if  he  has  but  a  frying- 
pan;  a  log  for  a  table;  his  plate,  a  section  of  bark 
or  large  leaf. 

The  turkey  is  supposed  to  be  a  bird  of  dry 
meat,  but  this  is  so  only  when  all  juices  are 
boiled  or  baked  out  of  it.  The  usual  manner 
in  which  turkeys  are  cooked  is  by  roasting  or 


234     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

baking.  If  the  turkey  is  an  old  one,  the  first 
process  is  to  parboil  until  the  flesh  is  tender; 
then  it  is  stuffed  with  sundry  things,  such  as 
bread-crumbs,  oysters,  shrimp,  shallots,  onions, 
garlic,  truffles,  red  and  black  pepper,  wine  and 
celery  to  destroy  the  natural  flavor  of  the  bird. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  disguise  the  rich,  delicate  flavor 
of  turkey  meat  with  the  odor  of  fish,  but  it  is 
done  and  called  roast  turkey. 

If  the  turkey  is  a  young  one,  cook  it  in  the 
way  usual  to  stove-baking,  after  first  filling  its 
cavity  with  a  suitable  dressing  of  bread-crumbs, 
pepper,  salt,  and  onions  chopped  fine,  moistened 
with  fresh  country  butter.  This  is  the  best 
dressing  that  can  be  made,  and  will  detract 
nothing  from  the  flavor  of  the  bird  nor  add  to 
it.  If  an  old  turkey,  parboil  it  until  the  flesh 
is  quite  tender,  then  stuff  and  bake. 

In  the  forest  camp  I  neither  bake  nor  roast 
the  turkey.  Imagine  a  gobbler  dressed  and  ly- 
ing on  a  log  or  piece  of  bark  beside  you.  Take 
a  sharp  knife,  run  the  blade  down  alongside  the 
keel  bone,  removing  the  flesh  from  one  end  of 
that  bone  to  the  other.  By  this  process  each 


THE    SECRET    OF    COOKING    THE    TURKEY    235 

half  breast  can  be  taken  off  in  two  pieces.  Lay 
this  slab  of  white  meat  skin  side  down,  then  be- 
gin at  the  thick  end  and  cut  off  steaks,  trans- 
versely, one  half  inch  thick,  until  all  the  slab  is 
cut.  Now  sprinkle  with  salt  and  pepper  and 
pile  the  steaks  up  together;  thus  the  salt  will 
quickly  penetrate.  Do  not  salt  any  more  than 
you  want  for  one  meal;  the  meat  would  be 
ruined  if  allowed  to  stand  over  for  the  next  meal 
before  cooking.  Just  as  soon  as  the  salt  dissolves 
and  the  juice  begins  to  flow,  spread  out  the  steaks 
in  a  pan,  sprinkle  dry  flour  lightly  on  both  sides 
evenly,  taking  care  to  do  this  right,  or  you  will 
get  the  flour  on  too  thick.  Give  the  pan  a  shake 
and  the  flour  will  adjust  itself.  This  flour  at 
once  mixes  with  the  juices  of  the  meat,  forming 
a  crust  around  the  steak,  like  batter.  Have  the 
frying-pan  on  the  fire  with  plenty  of  grease,  and 
sizzling  hot  so  the  steak  will  fry  the  moment  it 
touches  the  hot  grease.  Put  the  steaks  in  until 
the  bottom  of  the  pan  is  covered,  but  never  have 
one  steak  lap  another.  If  the  grease  is  quite 
hot  the  steak  will  soon  brown,  and  when  brown 
on  one  side,  turn,  and  the  moment  it  is  brown 


236     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

on  both  sides  take  out  of  the  pan.  By  this 
method  you  retain  almost  every  particle  of  the 
juice  of  the  meat,  and  at  the  same  time  it  is  brown 
and  crisp,  and  will  nearly  melt  in  the  mouth. 
The  flour  around  the  steak  does  not  only  prevent 
the  escape  of  the  juice,  but  also  prevents  any 
grease  penetrating  the  meat.  If  you  like  gravy, 
have  the  frying-pan  hot  and  about  a  teaspoonful 
of  the  grease  in  which  the  meat  was  fried  left  in 
it;  take  a  half  pint  of  cold  water  and  pour  into  the 
pan.  Let  this  boil  about  five  minutes,  when  you 
will  have  a  rich,  brown  gravy,  which  season  with 
salt  and  pepper  and  pour  hot  over  the  steak. 
You  don 't  want  a  thing  else  to  eat  except  some 
good  bread  and  a  cup  of  creole  coffee.  Having 
eaten  turkey  thus  cooked  you  would  not  care 
for  baked  or  roast  turkey  again. 

The  bony  portions  of  your  turkey  may  be  cut 
up  at  the  joints,  and  all  available  put  into  a  pot 
or  saucepan  having  a  lid,  with  a  few  slices  of 
pork  or  bacon  for  seasoning,  or  fresh  butter.  No 
matter  how  fat  any  game  is  a  little  pork  improves 
it.  Put  in  a  pod  or  two  of  red  pepper  and  add  a 
little  water;  let  this  boil  and  simmer  until  quite 


THE    SECRET    OF    COOKING    THE    TURKEY     237 

done.  I  am  giving  directions  now  for  making  a 
stew.  For  the  thickening,  take  an  onion  or  two 
and  cut  into  small  pieces,  a  pod  of  red  pepper 
broken  up,  a  tablespoonful  of  flour  sifted,  and 
some  salt.  Put  all  into  a  pan  and  pour  in  a 
cup  of  cold  water,  stir  until  the  lumps  of  the  flour 
disappear,  then  put  the  mixture  into  the  pot 
with  the  turkey.  Stir  occasionally  until  it  boils, 
and  if  there  is  not  sufficient  gravy  in  the  vessel 
where  the  stew  is  cooking,  add  more  water.  Boil 
thirty  minutes,  then  serve.  In  this  stew  you  get 
the  finest  and  most  wholesome  dish  imaginable, 
and  at  very  little  expense  and  trouble. 

There  are  many  who  can  prepare  food  but 
never  understand  the  reasons  for  doing  things. 
Not  one  in  a  hundred  knows  why  meal,  flour,  or 
cracker-crumbs  are  put  on  fish  or  meat  while 
frying.  They  tell  you  it  helps  to  brown  the 
flesh;  it  does  no  such  thing,  but  prevents  brown- 
ing while  the  meat  is  being  cooked.  Leave  off 
the  flour  or  meal,  and  by  the  time  the  meat  is 
cooked  it  will  be  dry  and  hard  as  pine  bark  and 
as  indigestible.  When  fish  is  rolled  in  flour  or 
meal,  the  fish  is  not  browned,  but  the  covering  is. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

CAMERA  HUNTING  FOR  TURKEYS 

DURING  the  past  ten  years,  while  the  sea- 
son was  open  on  wild  turkeys,  I  have 
made  a  rule  to  leave  the  gun  at  home  and 
hunt  the  turkey  with  the  "camera"  instead. 

On  countless  occasions  I  have  sat  on  the  bank 
of  a  beautiful  creek  in  Alabama  watching  and 
waiting  for  these  noble  birds  to  appear  and  pose. 
Time  and  patience,  that's  what  it  takes;  likewise 
to  know  the  ways  of  the  bird. 

On  one  occasion  I  had  found  their  great  tracks 
on  the  sandbank,  and,  noting  it  as  a  favorite 
crossing,  made  an  impromptu  blind  to  mask 
the  camera  lest  the  birds  get  the  least 
glimpse  of  it  or  myself.  It  took  me  over  two 
months  to  get  an  opportunity  for  the  picture 
which  I  secured  at  last  one  afternoon  as  the  sun 
was  getting  low.  I  had  been  calling  at  inter- 
vals, and  just  when  least  expected,  there  they 

238 


CAMERA   HUNTING   FOR   TURKEYS  239 

were,  moving  slowly  but  watchfully  toward 
the  creek  and  across  the  scope  of  the  lens.  My 
finger  was  quick  to  reach  the  button  as  they 
stepped  to  the  sandy  bank,  and  turned  to  note 
that  no  enemy  lurked  behind.  The  click  of  the 
shutter  startled  them  but  little,  and  they  walked 
quietly  away.  I  knew  I  had  a  good  negative, 
as  the  late  afternoon  sun  shone  brightly  on  their 
gorgeous  plumage,  and  they  were  barely  fifteen 
feet  from  where  I  sat. 

Not  one  man  in  a  million  has  ever  had  the 
opportunity  of  viewing  one  of  these  birds  in  life 
in  the  woods  at  ten  to  fifteen  feet  —  nor  ever  will, 
and  to  these  I  hope  the  photographs  will  be  a 
pleasure;  for  to  see  a  ten-year-old  gobbler  so  near, 
when  he  is  not  frightened  —  and  you  with- 
out gun  or  other  means  to  injure  him  —  so  you 
may  enjoy  the  most  majestic  bird  the  eye  of 
man  ever  rested  on,  is  not  only  a  feast  for  the 
eye,  but  a  pleasant  memory  that  will  be  with 
you  forever. 

In  November,  1899,  in  Alabama,!  began  to  hunt 
with  the  camera,  and  for  six  months  —  with  the 
exception  of  one  day  only,  on  which  a  terrific 


240     THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

storm  raged  —  not  a  day  passed  that  I  was  not 
after  turkey  pictures,  sometimes  not  seeing  one 
in  two  or  three  weeks,  then  again  encountering 
twenty-five  to  forty  in  one  day.  I  spoiled  several 
hundred  plates  in  this  time,  snapping  at  every 
chance  that  occurred.  There  is  no  possibility 
of  a  time  exposure  on  such  sensitive  birds,  and  one 
twenty -fifth  of  a  second  is  scarcely  quick  enough. 
Often  the  click  of  the  shutter,  so  like  the  snap  of 
a  gun  when  missing  fire,  sent  them  whirling  into 
the  air  or  scattered  them,  pellmell,  afoot.  I  have 
stalked  and  crawled  to  their  scratching  places 
and  sat  concealed  with  camera  masked  on  an 
old  log  or  in  a  hollow  stump,  till  sundown;  all 
day,  and  the  next  and  the  next. 

I  have  made  three  or  four  exposures  in  a  day, 
gone  home,  developed  the  negatives,  and  found 
nothing  on  them  but  shadows  —  taken  in  shade; 
but  at  other  times  there  was  the  just  reward 
when  all  the  plates  came  out  with  every  image 
"perfect."  Then,  again,  it  would  rain  almost 
daily  for  a  month  or  two.  Still  I  went,  camera 
slung  over  my  shoulder,  covered  with  a  rubber 
sheet,  hoping  for  sunshine. 


CAMERA   HUNTING   FOR   TURKEYS  241 

Once  I  discovered  a  bearded  hen  and  tried 
five  weeks  to  catch  her  with  the  lens,  and  never 
saw  her  but  twice  during  that  time.  The  next 
season  I  found  her  again  in  company  with  three 
other  hens.  I  called  them  within  ten  or  twelve 
feet.  This  time  it  had  been  sunlight  all  day, 
but  just  a  minute  before  they  came  near  enough 
a  thin  haze  covered  the  sun.  Still,  I  pressed 
the  button  and  got  a  dim  negative  of  her  and 
of  one  of  her  playmates,  and  have  not  seen  her 
since. 

To  successfully  photograph  wild  turkeys  the 
greatest  care  must  be  taken  in  having  a  blind 
perfectly  natural  in  appearance.  Once  in  the 
blind,  do  not  move;  never  mind  the  wind;  wild 
turkeys  cannot  smell  you  any  farther  than  you 
can  them,  but  they  can  outsee  anything  except 
the  heron,  crane,  and  hawk,  and  you  must  get 
within  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  of  them  in  the  bright 
sunshine,  or  no  picture.  Find  their  scratching 
places  and  hide  behind  a  log,  or  make  a  blind  of 
brush  and  green  leaves,  etc.  Be  sure  to  hide 
all  the  camera  save  the  disk  of  the  lens,  and  they 
will  see  that  nearly  every  time.  I  have  had 


THE   WILD    TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

them  discover  the  lens  and  approach  within  two 
feet  and  peer  at  it  with  curious  wonder,  whine 
and  purr,  until  satisfied  it  would  not  harm  them, 
then  walk  serenely  away. 

At  times  when  I  saw  a  flock  or  an  individual 
feeding  at  a  distance,  I  would  take  my  call  and 
invite  them  to  advance,  "stand  up  and  look 
pleasant,"  and  if  in  the  humor  they  would  often 
comply.  I  have  a  friend  living  in  New  Orleans 
with  whom  a  hundred  happy  hours  have  been 
spent  in  the  camp,  wild  woods,  and  along  the 
stream,  chiefly  in  quest  of  these  noble  fowls. 
He  and  I  have  exchanged  letters  once  a  week  for 
the  past  quarter  of  a  century.  Of  course  I  re- 
gale him  with  every  new  photograph  taken  of 
turkeys.  One  day  I  mailed  him  several  that 
set  him  afire,  and  on  a  certain  day  friend  Renaud 
came  to  me  with  his  old  10-gauge  which  has 
served  him  thousands  of  times. 

The  next  morning  when  day  broke  we  sat  on 
the  crest  of  a  pine  ridge  adjacent  to  the  hum- 
mock bordering  the  "Big-bee"  river  swamps, 
over  which  the  turkeys  roosted  at  night.  Ere 
long  the  gray  of  the  eastern  horizon  began  to 


CAMERA   HUNTING   FOR   TURKEYS  243 

melt  into  a  rosy  hue,  and  suddenly  out  of  the  deep 
swamp  came  the  shrill,  gutteral  but  mighty 
pleasing  "Gil-obble- — obble,  obble,"  of  a  tur- 
key, echoing  along  the  slopes  and  through  the 
vales  of  the  surrounding  forests. 

After  a  while  we  heard  him  gobble  on  the 
ridge,  so  I  took  my  call  and  began  to  pipe  a  few 
words  in  turkey  vernacular,  which  the  old  gen- 
tleman seemed  to  comprehend  by  the  way  he 
gave  ready  reply.  By  this  time  the  turkeys  had 
all  flown  down,  several  gobbling  in  as  many 
directions.  Several  were  approaching  slowly, 
and  we  could  hear  them  below  the  crest  of  the 
hill.  Luck  favored  us,  so  far  as  nothing  yet  had 
disturbed  them,  and  they  gradually  came  nearer, 
until  presently  a  remark  from  my  companion, 
"Old  Gobbler  in  sight?"  "See  him  coming, 
two  of  them,  yes,  three";  and  on  they  came, 
their  great  black  breasts  glowing  in  the  bright 
sun,  while  their  long  beards  swung  from  side  to 
side. 

Suddenly,  when  within  thirty  paces  of  us,  one 
of  them  spied  Renaud  's  new  drab  corduroy  cap, 
which  contrasted  vividly  with  the  black  and 


244     THE   WILD   TURKEY   AND    ITS   HUNTING 

charred  log  behind  which  we  were  hid,  and  "  Put" 
"put;"  all  were  gone,  helter-skelter. 

Renaud  's  heart  was  broken  —  mine  wrecked. 

"Why  in  the  d-dickens  didn't  you  shoot?"  I 
asked,  mad  as  a  hornet. 

"I  wanted  to  get  them  in  position  to  get  the 
two  largest  ones." 

"Gee!  you  ought  to  have  made  sure  of  that 
fellow  with  the  immense  beard,  and  chance 
another  on  the  rise  or  run;"  but  just  as  we  were 
waxing  into  a  fine  quarrel,  R.  remarked  in  a 
whisper,  "They  are  coming  back." 

'Yes,"  I  replied,  "and  several  others  with 
them  —  some  old  ones  and  some  yearlings;  so 
make  no  mistake  this  time,  and  be  sure  of  one  of 
the  old  ones." 

They  were  very  near  now,  and  as  I  made  a  low 
call  all  stopped  and  some  gobbled;  then  on  they 
came  in  a  careless  manner,  neither  strutting  nor 
exhibiting  any  special  passion. 

I  quickly  got  in  my  camera  work,  and  ducked 
my  head  in  time  to  see  the  beautiful  things  walk- 
ing away  from  the  gun ;  then  two  well-measured 
reports  —  and  the  smoke  clearing  away  showed 


CAMERA   HUNTING   FOR   TURKEYS  245 

two  grand  old  patriarchs  flopping  over  on  the 
pine  straw  and  soon  lying  still.  I  am  not  sure 
which  was  the  proudest  —  I  as  particeps  criminis 
or  he  as  executioner. 


THE  END 


THE  COUNTRY  LIFE  PRESS 
GARDEN  CITY,  N.  Y. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


AUG3 

DEC  11  1959 
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